MANILA - While the unemployment rate declined, fewer Filipinos were able to work amid the Omicron surge in January 2022, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said. As reported by the Philippine Statistics Authority on Friday, the unemployment rate improved from 6.6 percent in December 2021 to 6.4 percent in January 2022, the lowest since the start of the pandemic. However, due to the Omicron surge in January, the labor force participation rate fell from 65.1 percent to 60.5 percent. Another reason for lower employment levels is the end of the holiday season which shed off seasonal jobs. Despite this, net employment remains at 0.5 million above the pre-pandemic level. The level of underemployment also slightly increased from 14.7 percent to 14.9 percent. "The Omicron surge caused a temporary decline in our employment levels. Now that we have contained the spread of the virus and shifted to alert level 1 in most parts of the country, we look forward to an improveme