The unemployment rate in September rose slightly to 4.5 percent from 4.4 percent in August, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Wednesday.

This translates to 2.26 million Filipinos who were jobless in the past month compared to 2.21 million in August.

The employment rate in September was 95.5 percent or 47.67 million, down from August which was 95.6 percent or 48.07 million.

Subsectors that saw the highest growth in jobs were accommodation and food service activities (608,000), administrative and support service activities (535,000), and construction (481,000).

According to PSA Undersecretary Dennis Mapa, the top reasons for the decline in the employment rate were employees returning to school, job seekers believing no work is available, bad weather, and employees waiting to be re-hired by their former companies.

The underemployment rate slightly decreased to 10.7 percent or 5.11 million in September from 11.7 percent or 5.63 million in August. Jaspearl Tan/DMS