The Philippines jobless rate climbed to 7.7 percent in January, the highest since April, data showed on Tuesday, and analysts said it would rise further as the country feels the impact of the financial crisis. About 275,000 people lost their jobs since October and the latest quarterly report from the statistics office showed unemployment turning higher after falling last year.
It had dropped to 6.8 percent in October from 7.4 percent in July and 8.0 percent in April. However, analysts said the data is not seasonally adjusted and they believe the actual rate could be understated. "The actual data is very seasonal so youve always got to take it with a grain of salt," said Nicholas Bibby, regional economist and strategist at Barclays Capital.
"It is slightly up compared with what it was last year. This is understandable given the weakness that we are seeing coming through especially for the electronics sector," he said. The Philippines jobless rate is the second highest among the biggest Southeast Asian economies, behind Indonesia, which reported its latest unemployment rate for August 2008 as 8.4 percent.
The unemployment rate in Thailand at the end of last year was 1.4 percent, below Singapores 2.6 percent, Malaysias 3.3 percent and Vietnams urban reading of 4.65 percent. In the Philippines, job losses and reduced work hours have been on the rise particularly in the semiconductor and electronics sector, which produce just over half of the countrys exports revenues, as global demand shrank.