More Filipinos were either jobless or out of business in August, the government reported Thursday.

As reported by the Philippine Statistics Authority, the country’s unemployment rate went up to 5.3 percent in August 2022 from 5.2 percent in July.

But year-on-year, there was a decrease of unemployed workers to 2.7 million in August 2022 from 3.9 million in August 2021. 

The underemployment rate remained at 14.7 percent or 548,000 more employed individuals seeking additional hours of work.  

Prioritizing investment opportunities in the productive sectors and strengthening the country’s human capital will translate to more high-quality and resilient jobs, further enabling a vibrant Philippine labor market, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said. 

“We are now reaping the gains of the safe and gradual full reopening of the economy. However, we must not rest on our laurels—we must harness the benefits of our key economic liberalization laws such as the Public Service Act, Foreign Investments Act, and Retail Trade Liberalization Act. These reforms would attract high-value and innovation-driven investments which, in turn, could generate more and quality employment,” NEDA Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said.  

Meanwhile, the labor force participation rate picked up to 66.1 percent in August 2022 from 63.6 percent in August 2021, the highest recorded rate since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This translates to 2.4 million more Filipinos in the labor force relative to the previous year. 

Further, total employment reached 47.9 million in August 2022 or 3.6 million additional employment year-on-year.

NEDA said this is on account of stronger growth in the services sector, specifically in the wholesale & retail trade and accommodation & food services that benefitted from the continued easing of mobility restrictions and resumption of face-to-face classes.