MANILA The Philippines' unemployment rate rose to 11.4 percent in January from the same month last year due to a decline in the number of jobs in agriculture, a government agency said on Friday.

The National Statistics Office (NSO) said the number of unemployed persons in January rose to 3.59 million compared to 2.89 million for the same month in 2000, when the jobless rate was 9.5 percent.

The unemployment rate was also up from 10.1 percent in October 2000, when the nso last conducted a labor survey.

(DPA)