BETTER JOBS. Millions of Filipinos flock to job fairs in the hope of landing quality jobs every year. Photo by AFP.

MANILA, Philippines - Roughly 1/5th of employed Filipinos said they wanted to work additional hours on top of their present job, according to a January 2013 Labor Force Survey released by the National Statistics Office.

Even as the number of jobless Filipinos stayed relatively level at 7.1% from 7.2% in January 2012, the unemployment rate was not only stubbornly high but also increased. The underemployment rate rose to 20.9% of the employed population or 7.93 million in January, up from 18.8% or 7.02 million in January of 2012.

According to the NSO survey, 42.3% of the underemployed work in the service sector, while 41.8% work in the agriculture sector.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the problem in agriculture could be addressed by increasing demand. “This can be done by developing more by-products from the same agricultural output, or further processing the output so that it can be sold in the urban areas,” said Balisacan.

The Labor Force Survey showed that as of January:

1. Some 2.86 million Filipinos did not have work out of labor force of 40.8 million people.
2. The highest percentage of unemployed Filipinos could be found in the National Capital Region, which had a 90.5% employment rate.
3. The lowest percentage of jobless Filipinos was found in Cagayan Valley, which had a high 96.7% employment rate.
4. More males were jobless than females, with men making up 63.6% of the ranks of the unemployed.
5. Those who graduated from college or had some college experience were less likely to be unemployed than those who only graduated from high school. Of the unemployed, 33.7% were high school graduates, 13.1% were college undergraduates and 16.9% were college graduates.

- Rappler.com