Manila - The Philippines' unemployment rate inched up to 8 per cent in April from 7.4 per cent a year ago as industries struggle with skyrocketing oil prices, the government said Tuesday.

According to a quarterly survey by the National Statistics Office, the actual number of unemployed persons rose to 2.91 million in April from 2.69 million last year.

The survey also showed that the total number of employed persons in April went down to 33.53 million people from 33.77 million people a year ago.

Almost half or 46.6 per cent of the country's employed people are working in the services sector, 35.5 per cent in the agriculture sector and 14.9 per cent in the industry sector.

The number of underemployed persons, or those who desire additional hours of work, was estimated at 6.62 million, higher than 6.37 million in the same month last year. (dpa)