{"id":641285,"date":"2026-10-25T23:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-25T23:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/641285\/"},"modified":"2026-10-25T23:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-25T23:18:11","slug":"misery-index-eases-to-five-month-low-in-august","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/641285\/","title":{"rendered":"Misery index eases to five-month low in August"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Philippines\u2019 adjusted misery index eased to 22.6% in August from 24.3% in July, its lowest level in five months or since the 20.8% recorded in March. The decline came as unemployment fell to 5.3%, adjusted underemployment* eased to 11.2%, and inflation slowed to 6.1%. The index, which now incorporates the adjusted underemployment rate alongside inflation and unemployment rates, offers a broader measure of economic discomfort. Originally developed by economist Arthur Okun, the misery index serves as a proxy for economic distress. A lower reading typically signals better economic health, though structural issues may persist.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/261026Misery_ONLINE.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-789105 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/261026Misery_ONLINE.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1280\" height=\"1280\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Philippines\u2019 adjusted misery index eased to 22.6% in August from 24.3% in July, its lowest level in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,38795,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-641285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-infographics","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=641285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}