Manila  - The Philippines' unemployment rate eased to 7.4 per cent in July from a two-year high three months ago, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said Tuesday.

According to the NSO's quarterly survey, 2.75 million Filipinos were jobless in July 2008, down from 2.82 million in the same month last year when the unemployment rate was 7.8 per cent.

The July jobless rate was down from 8 per cent in April, when 2.91 million Filipinos were out of work.

The NSO said a total of 34,597 million people were employed in July, more than half of whom worked in the services sector, 35 per cent in agriculture and 14.8 per cent in the industry sector.

Among all workers, 52.8 per cent were wage and salary earners, while 35.3 per cent were self-employed and 11.8 per cent were unpaid family help, the NSO said. (dpa)