Bicol Regional Unemployment Rate Balloons to 7.8 Percent in April

2013_0621_manivendors
Salted peanut vendors in Legazpi city pose for a photo, here. This scene is very common in the region. Image credit and thanks to Cid Brocales.

Employment rate in the Bicol region dropped by 0.9 percentage point in April this year in comparison to the same period last year. This information was released by the National Statistics Office based on the result of their current labor force survey. The jobless rate in April of 2012 was 6.9 per cent, meaning that the Bicol regional unemployment rate uncontrollably ballooned to 7.8 per cent.

The same survey revealed that the labor force participation rate or the proportion of those in the labor force to the population aged 15 years old and over rose by 0.9 percentage points from the same period a year ago, settling at 65.4 percent. Of the total population of the region, an estimated 3.83 million are aged 15 years and over. That number represents 6 per cent of the national total.

The regional underemployment rate also alarmingly swelled by 3.8 percentage points. Region V still has the highest underemployment rate among regions of the Philippines at 38.5 percent.

*26

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *