Philippine jobless rate rises to 7.5pc

MANILA, Mar 11 (Xinhua): Unemployment rate in the Philippines went up to 7.5 per cent in January from 7.1 per cent recorded a year ago, according to preliminary estimates released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) today.

In its January Labor Force Survey (LFS), PSA said most of the 2.96 million jobless people are male, aged 15 to 24 years old and only completed secondary school.

The country's capital region, the National Capital Region, continued to have the highest unemployment rate at 11.2 per cent.

PSA figures also showed that underemployment remained high at 19.5 per cent in January. Underemployed people are those who work less than 40 hours a week.

The number of those employed reached 36.42 million in January, higher than the 36.13 million recorded a year ago. The services sector employed the most number of workers, with 54.1 per cent of those who have jobs working in this sector.