Philippine Jobless Rate Falls To 4-Month Low

(RTTNews) - The Philippines' unemployment rate dropped for the second straight month in April to the lowest level in four months, preliminary figures from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed on Friday.

The unemployment rate edged down to 4.5 percent in April from 4.7 percent in March.

Further, this was the lowest jobless rate since December last year, when it was 4.3 percent.

In the corresponding month last year, the rate was 5.7 percent.

The number of unemployed persons declined to 2.26 million in April from 2.76 million a year ago.

Data showed that the employment rate increased somewhat to 95.5 percent from 95.3 percent in the prior month.

The labor force participation rate was 65.1 percent in April, down from 66.0 percent in the preceding month.