Jobless rate rises to 4.1% in April

The country's unemployment rate increased in April from the previous month, while the quality of jobs in the market worsened, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

- Louella Desiderio

Preliminary results of the PSA's Labor Force Survey released yesterday showed that the country's unemployment rate went up to 4.1 percent in April from 3.9 percent the previous month and four percent in the same month last year.

In terms of magnitude, there were 2.06 million jobless Filipinos in April, higher than the 1.93 million the previous month and 2.04 million in April last year.

While the number of unemployed Filipinos increased month-on-month, National Statistician Dennis Mapa said 129,000 of these are waiting for their job application results, while 42,000 are waiting to be rehired.

"We will check this in the survey month of May and June if they will enter the employed persons category," he said.

Despite the slight uptick in unemployment, Department of Economy, Planning and Development (DEPDev) Undersecretary Rosemarie Edillon said the labor market continues to show resilience amid global headwinds.

"We remain on track to meet our target unemployment range of 4.4 to 4.7 percent set under the Philippine Development Plan 2023 to 2028," she said.