MANILA - THE Philippines' jobless rate rose to a near four-year high of 8.0 per cent in April despite the economy growing quickly, official data showed on Tuesday. The figure is up from 7.3 per cent in January, the last month for which data were released.
The National Statistics Office said in a statement the spike was 'not significant', however it came at a time of strong overall economic performance.
The economy expanded by a near three-year high of 7.3 per cent in the first quarter of the 2010. And the last time the jobless rate reached 8.0 per cent was in July 2006.
The statistics office said 3.1 million Filipinos were unemployed in April, while another 6.3 million were only part-time workers, defined as having worked for less than 40 hours a week.
It means one in four of the total Philippine labour force of 38.5 million are either out of work or only had part-time jobs.
The impoverished Philippines, with a total population of more than 90 million people, also has a huge pool of unskilled people with scant education who hold temporary jobs outside the official labour market. Typical jobs for them include selling cigarettes by the stick at street corners, clawing at garbage for recyclable items or working on construction sites. -- AFP
