MANILA – The unemployment rate in the Philippines worsened to 4.3 percent in December 2022 from 4.2 percent in November even as the holiday season peaked, according to preliminary data at the Philippine Statistics Authority.
National Statistician Dennis Mapa said in a briefing “the difference between the December and November figures is not significantly different (statistically).”
In December, there were 2.2 million working-age Filipinos who were available for work and were actively looking for jobs, 43,000 more than the 2.18 million jobseekers in November.
Still, this was much better than the jobs market a year earlier when there were 3.28 million unemployed or 1.06 million more in December 2021. Back then, the unemployment rate was 6.6 percent.
Mapa said that what was more notable in the latest survey result was that those who do have jobs have better-quality work, particularly in terms of longer work hours per week, which meant more income for them.
For full-year 2022, the jobless rate was at 5.4 percent with 2.67 million Filipinos without work. This was an improvement from 7.8 percent in 2021 when there were 3.7 million jobless Filipinos. (Ronnel W. Domingo © Philippine Daily Inquirer)
