About 1.007 million more jobs were created in the Philippines in April this year, up by 3.1 percent compared to last year's figure, the Department of Labor and Employment said in a report released yesterday.

The figure increased the country's total employment to 33.706 million from 32.699 million in April 2006. Acting Labor Secretary Danilo Cruz said in the report that based on the April 2007 Labor Force Survey of the National Statistics Office, all three broad sectors recorded positive employment growth rates.

Agriculture, fishery and forestry sectors posted the highest growth rate at 5.1 percent or 570,000, followed by the service sector at 2.6 percent or 416,000, and the industry sector at 0.4 percent or 20,000. Aside from agriculture, the sub-sectors that contributed most to employment creation were construction, private household with employed persons, real estate, renting and business activities, transport, storage and communications, and other community, social and personal service activities.

Wage and salary workers rose by 2.4 percent or 689,000, while own-account employment declined by 1.6 percent or 192,000. The unemployment rate fell to 7.4 percent (2.691 million) compared with the 8.2 percent (2.935 million) posted a year ago, the report added.*

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