MANILA - The unemployment rate in the Philippines fell to 4.4 percent in August from 4.8 percent in July, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.

This means there were 2.21 million jobless Filipinos or 60,000 fewer than the previous month, said National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa.

The underemployment rate also fell to 11.7 percent in August from 15.9 percent in July.

This brings the number of Filipino workers, who saw their jobs or wages as insufficient, down to 5.63 million, which was 1.47 million fewer than in July.

The state statistics bureau noted that about 3.38 million more Filipinos joined the labor force in August, bringing the labor force participation rate to 64.7 percent.

Broken down by sector, services still employed the most Filipinos, accounting for 57.3 percent of total employed.

Agriculture accounted for 24.5 percent, while industry employed 18.2 percent of all workers.

Year-on-year, the 5 industries that added the most number of jobs included fishing and aquaculture (572,000); construction (534,000); agriculture and forestry (378,000); human health and social work activities (153,000); and administration and support service activities (143,000).

National Statistician Dennis Mapa said the number of jobs in agriculture increased in August as planting resumed after storms battered the country.

He noted that month-on-month, there were 1.97 million more jobs in agriculture and forestry in August compared to July.

"Napansin namin nagkaroon ng activities related to planting nung August after--'di ba binaha tayo ng July? Kaya tumigil."

(We noticed that planting activities increased in August--remember we had floods in July? We stopped back then.)

Meanwhile, the industries that had the highest drop in jobs were: wholesale and retail trade, and repair of motorcycles and vehicles (1.21 million); public administration and defense and compulsory social security (228,000); financial and insurance activities (197,000); information and communication (134,000); and mining and quarrying (89,000).

Mapa noted, however, that jobs in retail increased month-on-month as schools opened.

He said there were 1.14 million more jobs in the retail sector in August.

"Napansin namin, itong August, dahil nagsimula yung preparation para sa pasukan, tumaas yung ating mga workers related doon sa mga activities sa school. In particular yung mga sa garments--school uniforms I suppose ito," he said.

(We noticed that there were more workers in jobs related to the school opening in August. In particular, there were more workers in the garments space--I think this is for school uniforms.)

In terms of occupation, more Filipinos had jobs as:

• Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers (567,000);
• Elementary occupations (551,000);
• Plant and machine operators and assemblers (345,000);
• Technicians and associate professionals (74,000); and
• Clerical support workers (12,000)

But there was a drop in the number of Filipinos who had jobs as service and sales workers (683,000); craft and related trade workers (397,000); managers (185,000); and professionals (88,000).

Of the 3.44 million new jobs in August, only 87,000 jobs are salaried work.

Mapa said 1.89 million jobs were for self-employed persons, and 1.85 million are unpaid family workers or those who opted to help their family business. Most of the self-employed joined school-related jobs.

Although more jobs were created, Mapa said there is still a need to create more high quality or high-skilled jobs.

“We really have to look at hindi lang number but also the quality of jobs in terms of the classification sa class of worker.”

In a statement, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said much more needed to be done for Filipinos as the number of middle- and high-skilled occupations decreased (354,000), while low-skilled occupations increased (551,000) year-on-year.

“To raise the quality of employment further, the Marcos administration is committed to exerting all efforts to shape an attractive business climate for investors who have the resources needed to bring in high-quality and high-paying jobs," NEDA Secretary Arsenio Baliscan said.

• Unemployment, underemployment climb in July from June

--with reports from Jekki Pascual, ABS-CBN News