The proportion of unemployed men was higher (63.2%) than unemployed women (36.8%). However, improvement in the unemployment rate for men (5.9% from 6.4%) was noted compared to the unemployment rate of women, which remained unchanged (5.3% from 5.3%).

Further, almost half of the unemployed workers were young persons aged 15 to 24 years old (48.2% or 1.129 million) and persons aged 25 to 54 years old (48.1% or 1.127 million). Unemployment rate for all aged groups improved. Particularly, youth unemployment rate improved to 13.6% from 14.2%

There were improvements in the quality of employment as evidenced by the remarkable reduction in both unemployment and underemployment. Unemployment rate eased to 5.7% from 2014’s 6.0%. In absolute levels, the total number of unemployed persons decreased by 5.5% (-137,000) to 2.345 million from 2.482 million.

These data were culled from the highlights of the October 2015 Labor Force Survey, a periodic report released by the Institute for Labor Studies based on the survey of the same name conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority.

These survey results add to the 2015 achievement of the Philippine government as the country celebrates the National Women’s Month this March 2016. The celebration highlights the inclusion of women’s concerns in leadership platforms and the government’s development agenda.