The current administration will sustain efforts to create quality jobs for Filipinos, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said on Friday.

Marcos gave the assurance, as he welcomed the drop in unemployment rate in April 2023.

“Malaking oportunidad ito para pag-igihin pa ang paghahanap at pagbibigay ng kalidad na pagkakakitaan sa ating mga kababayan (This is a big opportunity to strive harder to create quality jobs that we could offer to our fellow countrymen),” he said in a Facebook post.

The country’s unemployment rate dropped to 4.5 percent in April 2023 from 5.7 percent in the same month last year, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) April 2023 Labor Force Survey.

The PSA reported that the number of unemployed Filipinos in April 2023 was estimated at 2.26 million, down from the 2.76 million in April last year.

Employment rate in April 2023 went up to 95.5 percent, from 94.3 percent in April 2022.

According to the PSA report, there are about 48.06 million employed Filipinos in April 2023, higher than the 45.63 million posted in the same period last year.

Marcos said the government would take advantage of technology to generate more job opportunities in the country.

“Tumaas ang bilang ng mga manggagawa sa bansa na nasa 48.06 milyon na nitong Abril (The number of employed Filipinos rose to 48.06 million this April),” he said.

“Kaya naman patuloy lamang ang ating administrasyon sa pagtutok sa pagpapabuti ng kakayahan ng ating lakas paggawa at sa paggamit ng teknolohiya para sa benepisyo ng ating labor market (That’s why our administration would continue to focus on strengthening the labor force and using the technology for the benefit of our labor market),” he added.

PSA data also showed the Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) has increased to 65.1 percent in April 2023 or about 50.31 million Filipinos aged 15 years old and over who were either employed or unemployed.

The reported LFPR in April 2023 was also higher than the reported rate of 63.4 percent in April 2022 and 64.5 percent in January 2023.

LFPR among males (75.4 percent) was higher compared to females (54.7 percent) although the employment rate was higher among females at 96.0 percent than their male counterparts at 95.2 percent.

The PSA said the underemployment rate among males was higher (14.6 percent) than for females (10.6 percent). The unemployment rate for males was registered at 4.8 percent of the 29.27 million males in the labor force, while 4.0 percent of the 21.04 million females in the labor force were unemployed in April 2023.

The services sector continued to dominate the labor market having the largest share of employed persons of about 61.1 percent of the total employed persons in April 2023, the PSA said.

The PSA said the year-on-year gain in employment was driven by the services sector.

The agriculture and industry sectors accounted for 21.9 percent and 17.0 percent, respectively.

The top five sub-sectors with the highest increase on the number of employed persons from April 2022 to April 2023 include wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (914,000); accommodation and food service activities (379,000); administrative and support service activities (345,000); transportation and storage (321,000); and other service activities (242,000). (PNA)