The lowest jobless rate in nearly 18 years was recorded when the number of unemployed Filipinos declined to 4.2 percent in November, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Friday.

PSA data showed 2.18 million Filipinos were jobless. This is lower than the 2.24 million or 4.5 percent unemployment rate last October.

It said the highest employment rate since April 2005 was recorded in November at 95.8 percent.

"In terms of levels, there were 49.71 million persons 15 years old and over who were employed in November 2022, 47.11 million in October and 45.47 million in November 2021," it stated.

"The country’s labor force participation rate (LFPR) picked-up at 67.5 percent in November 2022, the highest LFPR since April 2005. This LFPR translates to about 51.88 million Filipinos 15 years old and over who were either employed or unemployed," it added.

PSA said "average weekly hours worked of an employed person in November 2022 slid to 39.3, from 40.2 and 39.6 hours per week in October and November 2021, respectively."

"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 registered at 7.16 million, translating to an underemployment rate of 14.4 percent," PSA said.

"This was lower than the reported rate in November 2021 (16.8 percent) but higher than the reported rate in October (14.2 percent)," the PSA said.

The data also shows that the labor force participation rate of males is higher at 77 percent than females at 57.8 percent while the employment rate among females was higher at 95.9 percent than their male counterparts at 95.7 percent.

"Moreover, the underemployment rate among males (16.1 percent) was higher than for females (12.1 percent). The unemployment rate among females was lower at 4.1 percent of 22.17 million total female labor force than their male counterpart at 4.3 percent of the total 29.71 million male labor force," it said.

PSA said the services sector ''had the largest share of employed persons of about 60.5 percent. The agriculture and the industry sectors accounted for 21.4 percent and 18.1 percent of the employed persons, respectively."

The PSA listed the top five sub-sectors with the highest drop in the number of employed persons from October to November. These were construction, fishing and aquaculture, transportation and storage, administrative and support service activities and mining and quarrying.

It also listed the top five sub-sectors with annual declines in employment which includes fishing and aquaculture, education, public administration and defense; compulsory social security and construction.

The PSA also stated that the youth labor force as of November was estimated at 8.05 million of the 20.14 million youth population of 15 to 24 years old.

"This translates to a Youth LFPR ( labor force participation ratio) of 40 percent, which was higher than the posted youth LFPR in November 2021 and October 2022 of 37.5 percent and 34.2 percent, respectively," PSA said. Robina Asido/DMS