Unemployment, underemployment rates rise in March 2025

MANILA, Philippines, May 10 ------ The Philippine unemployment rate slightly rose to 3.9% in March 2025, up from 3.8% in February, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported. This translates to approximately 1.93 million unemployed individuals. 

The PSA reported that the employment rate in March 2025 stood at 96.1%, equivalent to 48.02 million employed individuals. The country’s labor force participation rate also declined slightly, from 64.5% in February to 62.9% in March. As of March 2025, there are 49.96 million Filipinos aged 15 years old and above who are qualified to be a part of the labor force.  

Meanwhile, the country’s underemployment rate in March 2025 rose to 13.4% from 10.1% “In terms of magnitude, 6.44 million of the 48.02 million employed individuals expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or to have additional job, or to have a new job with longer hours of work in March 2025,” the PSA said.  

The PSA also estimated that the average employed person would work for 41.2 hours per week. In terms of broad industry, the service sector is the top source of employment for people, comprising 62.0% of the total work force. It is followed by the agriculture sector (20.1%) and industry sector 17.9%.  

Wage and salary workers are also the largest members of the labor force, holding 78.1% of workers in March 2025. In terms of subsectors, here are the groups that saw the highest year on year increases in workers:  

- Education: Up by 210,000 workers  

- Administrative and support service activities: Up by 145,000 workers  

- Fishing and aquaculture: Up by 138,000 workers  

- Arts, entertainment and recreation: Up by 91,000 workers  

-  health and social work activities: Up by 51,000 workers  

Meanwhile, the following subsectors recorded the biggest year on year drop in workers:  

- Agriculture and forestry: Down by 609,000  

- Public administration and defense; compulsory social security: Down by 394,000  

- Manufacturing: Down by 281,000  

- Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles: Down by 175,000 

- Professional, scientific and technical activities: Down by 100,000 

Source: philstar.com