The unemployment rate in August dropped to four percent due to in part the increase of women in the workforce, Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Undersecretary Dennis Mapa said Tuesday.

This is lower than 4.4 percent in the same month last year and July’s 4.7 percent.

This translates into 2.07 million jobless Filipinos in August , compared to 2.22 million in the same month last year and 2.38 million in July.

“One of the major factors that we saw in August 2024 was that many women participated in the labor force and many of them were absorbed by the labor market,” Mapa said at a briefing.

“Year-on-year, between August 2023 and August 2024, about 1.03 million female workers joined the labor force and about 1.03 million were also absorbed in the labor market,” he added.

The employment rate rose to 96 percent in August 2024, higher than 95.6 percent in August 2023 and 95.3 percent in July.

This means that 49.15 million Filipinos were employed compared to 48.07 million in August 2023 and 48.07 million in July.

The labor force participation of women rose to 54.7 percent in August from 52.4 percent in July.

Male workers also slightly increased to 74.8 percent from 74.5 percent in a month-on-month comparison.

The employment rate for women also spiked to 95.3 percent from 94.8 percent .

The employment rate for men also increased to 96.5 percent from 95.6 percent.

Mapa noted that a majority of Filipino women worked for 40 hours.

In terms of areas of work wholesale and retail had the highest number of female employees with 643,000; followed by public administration and defense with 277,000; accommodation and food service activities with 273,000; and other service activities with 266,000.

In terms of types of work, most female workers had wage and salary jobs (865,000); private establishments (422,000); government corporations (387,000); and private households (111,000).

Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said he expects more jobs to be generated due to the decrease in the inflation rate as the holiday season approaches. Jaspearl Tan/DMS