MANILA, Philipines — The Philippine Statistics Authority reported Thursday that the number of unemployed Filipinos decreased in February to 1.8 million, down from 2.15 million in January.
That brought the country’s unemployment rate to 3.5 percent, lower than the 4.5 percent in the preceding month.
A nationwide survey of 169,700 households showed there were 2.15 million unemployed Filipinos in January, higher than 1.60 million recorded in December,
At the same time, 6.08 million Filipinos were underemployed in February, representing those who sought additional jobs or working hours to augment their income. That was lower than the 6.39 million underemployed persons in January.
That translated to an underemployment rate of 12.4 percent in February against the 13.9 percent in January.
The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) earlier said the Marcos administration was working on strengthening linkages among industry, the academe, and the public sector to address skill mismatches in the labor market.
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