The country’s unemployment rate fell to 7.8 percent in January from 8.1 percent a year earlier, with more Filipinos being able to land jobs, the government said Thursday.

The labor force in January increased by 1.2 million from a year earlier to 36.4 million out of the estimated 56.1 million Filipinos aged 15 and over, the National Statistics Office said.

Those working in the services sector comprised 50.5 percent of the total number of employed, with agricultural workers, 34.7 percent and the industrial sector, 14.8 percent.

The total number of unemployed reached 2.83 million at the end of January compared to 2.80 million in the same period in 2006, the NSO said.

The NSO said the employed were classified as either full-time workers who put in 40 hours or more a week or part-timers who work less than 40 hours, with the latter accounting for 35.9 percent of the total work force.

Economic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri said the figures showed “significant growth” with 4.7 percent more Filipinos in work and 1.52 million jobs created.

“The improvement is attributed to the recovery of industry and the continued brisk performance of services,” Neri said in a statement.

“The services sector acts as a catch basin for informal employment as seen from the positive net employment generation posted by all of its sub-sectors.”

He said the government must sustain the performance in employment and address bottlenecks to decent work and full employment, noting the persistence of high underemployment rates.

“With improving economic prospects this year and the expected gains from continuing reforms, there are more people encouraged to join the labor force. Thus the government should do well to safeguard the employment created and continue implementing reforms in the industry sub-sectors that still saw job losses,” Neri said.

The jobless rate was higher among males—8.1 percent—than among females, 7.4 percent, the NSO said.
--AFP and Darwin G Amojelar