Philippine unemployment rate down in April

By： Xinhua Update：2017-06-09

Unemployment rate in the Philippines dropped to 5.7 percent in April 2017 from 6.1 percent of the same period last year, a government agency said on Friday.

Based on the April 2017 Labor Force Survey (LFS) of the Philippines Statistics Authority, an attached agency of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), the country's unemployment rate went down to 5.7 percent from 6.1 percent in April 2016.

The survey also showed that underemployment rate, or the proportion of employed persons wanting additional work, reached its lowest in more than 10 years at 16.1 percent in April 2017.

"This is lower by 962,000 workers, or 12.9 percent, compared with underemployed workers recorded in April 2016," NEDA said in a statement.

The need to sustain employment figures, while improving related services, is crucial to meeting the government's key targets in the Philippines Development Plan (PDP) 2017-2022, the NEDA stressed.

In particular, NEDA said the decreasing underemployment rate must be sustained together with higher job creation to reduce unemployment to around 3 percent by 2022.