THE Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said that the unemployment rate fell in December 2023.

However, the same report also said that underemployment went up.

According to PSA data, it said that the figure is 3.1 percent in December.

It is lower than the 3.6 percent in November, with the 4.3 percent rate seen in December 2022.

The latest labor force survey said that the data is based on the 1.6 million jobless workers in December, lower than the 1.83 million unemployed in the preceding month, and the 2.22 million in December 2022.

On the other hand, the underemployment went up to 11.9 percent in December from 11.7 percent in November.

However, it is still lower compared to the 12.6 percent rate seen in December 2022.

The underemployed workers are said to already have jobs but are looking for additional work hours or extra jobs. 

The PSA’s study said that there were 6.01 million underemployed Filipino workers in December last year.

Undersecretary and National Statistician Dennis Mapa noted that youth employment was up, but so was underemployment.

“Youth employment rate increased to 91.8 percent from 90.5 percent in December 2022 and 91.0 percent in November 2023. Among the youth employed, 11.6 percent were underemployed. This was higher than the 9.2 percent and 11.3 percent underemployment rate in December 2022 and November 2023, respectively,” he said in a statement.

The services sector is said to have the highest number of jobs, making up 57.3 percent of the total employment numbers, followed by agriculture at 24.4 percent and industry at 18.3 percent.

In terms of jobs added in the whole of 2023, construction was top at 777,000; followed by agriculture and forestry at 715,000; and accommodation and food services at 498,000.