The unemployment rate in April went down to 5.7 percent from 5.8 percent in the previous month, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Friday.

This meant the number of jobless Filipinos went down to 2.76 million in April from 2.87 million in March, PSA added.

The year-on-year changes in the number of employed persons from April 2021 to April 2022 showed the following top five sub-sectors with highest increase, namely:

a. Administration and support service activities (+349 thousand);

b. Accommodation and food service activities (+343 thousand);

c. Transportation and storage (+289 thousand);

d. Agriculture and forestry (+251 thousand); and

e. Construction (+249 thousand)

Underemployed persons or employed persons who expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or to have an additional job or to have a new job with longer hours of work was reported at 6.40 million of the 45.63 million employed population, translating to an underemployment rate of 14 percent in April.

Zamboanga Peninsula registered the highest employment rate at 97.1 percent while Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) posted the lowest employment rate at 91.9 percent.

Six of the country’s 17 regions posted lower employment rates compared to the 94.3 percent national estimate. These were the following: BARMM (91.9 peercent), NCR (92.5 percent), Region IV-A (93.2 percent), Region V (93.8 percent), Region VIII (94 percent) and Region I (94.1 percent). DMS