Employment falls in RP

Employment falls in RP

MANILA (AFP): The Philippine employment rate declined by 0.2 percentage points on the previous year to 91.2 percent in January as unemployment rose by the same amount to 8.8 percent, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said yesterday.

The NSO attributed the decline in the employment rate to an increase in the labor force population, which is 1.7 percent up at 25.1 million.

The number of unemployed persons increased to 2.418 million in January from 2.324 million the previous corresponding month, it added.

Double-digit unemployment rates were registered in Manila and its suburbs, as well as the rest of the main Philippine island of Luzon and parts of the central islands of the Visayas, the NSO said.