Around 3.76 million Filipinos were out of work in June compared to 3.73 million recorded in May, according to a Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) survey released on Tuesday.

The June unemployment rate at 7.7 percent is lower than the unemployment rates in April (8.7 percent), February (8.8 percent), and January (8.7 percent) this year, but higher than the 7.1 percent reported in March, PSA head Dennis Mapa said in an online briefing.

With the emergence of the more transmissible COVID-19 Delta variant, the government will reimpose a hard lockdown in Metro Manila from Aug. 6 to 20 to curb the possible spread of the new variant.

The two-week lockdown is expected to impact the employment outcomes in August. The government said it is determined to maximize the hard lockdown period to accelerate vaccination in high-risk areas to resume economic activities and restore jobs safely.

The country's economic managers said the government has prioritized preventing the spread of the Delta variant through more proactive quarantines in high-risk areas and an accelerated vaccination program.

"These actions are crucial in ensuring that economic gains in recent months will resume once we have addressed this current threat," the economic managers said in a joint statement.

The Philippines now has over 1.6 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 28,093 deaths.