Number of unemployed Filipinos worsens

The country’s unemployment rate eased to 7.2 percent in April from eight percent in the same month last year, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said Wednesday.

Results of the government’s quarterly Labor Force Survey showed that 2.91 million have no jobs two months ago compared to 3.1 million the previous year.

Of this number, half of the unemployed were in the age bracket of 15 to 24 years. There were more unemployed males (64 percent of all unemployed) than females (36 percent).

One in three of the unemployed were high school graduates, and almost more than 20 percent reached college.

The April 2011 labor force survey placed the size of the labor force at 39.7 million out of the estimated 61.8 million people aged 15 and above, resulting in the labor force participation rate (LFPR) of 64.2 percent.

By Virgil Lopez