MANILA, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' unemployment rate in October 2020 stood at 8.7 percent amid the lockdown restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the COVID-19, the Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Thursday.
PSA Head Dennis Mapa said the October unemployment rate is equivalent to 3.8 million jobless Filipinos who are 15 years old and over.
"This unemployment rate is the lowest since April this year although it is still higher than the 4.6 percent, or about 2.0 million unemployed Filipinos who are 15 years old and over, in the same period a year ago," Mapa said in a virtual news conference.
Mapa said three regions still reported double-digit unemployment rates. These are the National Capital Region (NCR) or Metro Manila, which had the highest unemployment rate estimate at 12.4 percent, followed by the Ilocos Region in the northern Philippines at 11.5 percent, and the region south of capital Manila at 11.0 percent.
By industry group, Mapa said the services sector was the dominant industry with about 57.2 percent share in October, followed by the agriculture sector with about 24.5 percent share.
The Philippines imposed strict quarantine measures in mid-March to curb the spread of COVID-19, limiting the movement of people and operations of many businesses.
The Philippines has been under varying degrees of lockdown for nearly nine months now. The Philippines now has 434,357 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 8,436 deaths. Enditem
