ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanews/15 December) – The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has posted the highest employment rate and the lowest unemployment rate for the month of October this year, the National Statistics Office (NSO) announced Thursday.
This, as the ARMM along with another Mindanao region, the Zamboanga Peninsula, are among the top four regions in the country that registered the highest employment rate in the country in October this year.
ARMM, which comprises the provinces of Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi and Marawi City, has registered an employment rate of 97.7 percent, according to the NSO’s Labor Force Survey for the month of October.
The NSO also said that ARMM has the lowest unemployment rate among all the other regions in the country, at 2.3 percent.
Zamboanga Peninsula, which registered an employment rate of 96.6 percent, ranked third, while Cagayan Valley and MIMAROPA ranked second and fourth with employment rates of 97.2 percent and 96.5 percent, respectively.
The NSO data showed that the employed population in October of this year was estimated at 38.5 million persons.
Those in the services sector comprised the largest group, consisting more than one-half or 52.1 percent of the total employed population, according to the NSO.
The second largest group of workers belongs to the agriculture sector, accounting for 33.4 percent of the total employed while the remainder 14.5 percent of the total employed was in the industry sector.
Meanwhile, the NSO data showed that the unemployment rate in October 2011 is estimated at 6.4 percent, which is lower compared to last year’s estimate of 7.1 percent.
The National Capital Region (NCR) posted the highest unemployment rate at 10.4 percent, the NSO disclosed.
There were more males than females among the unemployed population, which registered an unemployment rate of 62.6 percent and 37.4 percent, respectively.
Almost 50.0 percent of the unemployed were in age group 15-24 years, according to the NSO. (MindaNews)