MANILA, 17 September 2003 — The number of jobless Filipinos rose by 12.7 percent in July from a year ago, putting further strain on the already sluggish economy, National Statistics Office (NSO) said yesterday.

In a report released yesterday, the NSO said about 540,000 Filipinos were out of work as of July, compared to the 3.81 million unemployed in the same period last year.

Employment rate dropped to 87.3 percent from 88.8 percent a year ago, as the labor force inched up to 50.75 million from 50.53 million, said the report.

The services sector accounted for the bulk of employment in July with 48.6 percent, followed by agriculture with 34.8 percent.

The industry sector provided 16.6 percent of the jobs, the NSO added.

Analysts have warned that the jobless rate could further deteriorate as the country reels from the fallout of a failed mutiny in July, and intensified politicking ahead of next year’s elections.

As defined by the NSO) the unemployed are those who looked for work but did not find any.

Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said the bulk of the unemployment was in the agriculture, fishing and forestry sectors which accounted for 760,000 unemployed Filipinos. This development negated the employment gains made in the industry sector which registered an increase of 259,000 and the service sector which posted an increase of 254,000.

The underemployment rate last July was 20.8 percent, compared to 17.1 percent in July 2002. Of the underemployed, 10.8 percent were “visibly underemployed,” that is, those who were employed for less than 40 hours a week.

NSO data showed that more than half of those employed were wage and salary workers, while around one-third were unpaid family workers.

In terms of occupation, 27.1 percent of employed individuals were laborers and unskilled workers, 19.4 percent were farmers, forestry workers and fishermen, and 10.2 percent were corporate executive and government and special interest organization employees.

Sto. Tomas blamed the rise in unemployment to poor weather conditions, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the United States-led war on Iraq and the global financial crisis.

Sto. Tomas said that last May, there were tropical storms in Luzon and the Visayas while El Ni?o ravaged Mindanao. Two typhoons in June and July brought widespread flooding in Northern Luzon.

“We are not looking for scapegoats here but the reality is that we were ranged against these vicissitudes which I am optimistic we can overcome,” Sto. Tomas said.