MANILA, May 8 (Xinhua) -- The unemployment rate in March dropped to 4.7 percent from 4.8 percent in February, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Monday.
"This translates to 2.42 million unemployed Filipinos out of 51 million who were in the labor force in March," PSA head Dennis Mapa told a press conference.
The Asian Development Bank earlier said the Philippine workforce was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the country recording a steep decline in employment rates in 2020.
The Manila-based bank said the country's labor market recovery remains uneven, though the unemployment rate declined to 4.2 percent in November 2022 from 6.5 percent a year earlier. ■