Philippine’s unemployment rate has ballooned to 17.7 percent in April due the effect of Covid-19 in businesses.
The latest statistics from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) is the highest recorded since the 8.4 percent rate in 2005.
It’s also significantly higher than 5.3 percent in January and 5.1 percent in April last year.
According to National Statistician Dennis Claire Mapa, the unemployment rate is equivalent to an estimated 7.3 million jobless people in the Philippines.
The region with the highest unemployment rate as of April is in Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao at 29.8 percent and the lowest in Region 10 (Northern Mindanao) at 11.1 percent.
Meanwhile, it was earlier reported that about one million overseas Filipino workers will lose jobs until December 2021 due to Covid-19.
