By CONG B. CORRALES Associate Editor UNDEREMPLOYMENT remained as the region’s biggest problem even as poverty also remains “stubborn” amid the overall growth of northern Mindanao, a regional economic executive said yesterday. In a media forum on the regional economic situation here, Engr. Clark Clarete, chief of the Knowledge Management Division of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) in Region 10, said the average underemployment rate in the region has increased from 24.9 percent in 2015 to 28.2 percent last year. “Although we have a stable employment climate in the region, underemployment remains our biggest problem,” Clarete said. About one-fourth of northern Mindanao’s labor force are underemployed, he added. Last year, the average employment rate in the region was pegged at 94.7 percent which is 0.3 percentage points higher than the previous year’s. Exacerbating this, Clarete said, is the “stubborn poverty amid growth” in the region. The average inflation for the last quarter of 2016 was 2.2 percent. This is still within the inflation target of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilinas which spans from two percent to four percent. Clarete pointed out that a family of six has to earn P22,345 every month for them to be able to go beyond the poverty line.