The unemployment rate in the Philippines fell to 3.1 percent in June 2024 from 4.1 percent a year ago, the Philippine Statistics Authority said Wednesday.
It was also lower than 4.1 percent registered in May 2024.
“In terms of magnitude, the number of unemployed individuals in June 2024 was registered at 1.62 million. This was lower than the number of unemployed individuals in June 2023 at 2.33 million and in May 2024 at 2.11 million,” the PSA said.
“In terms of level, the number of employed persons in June 2024 was recorded at 50.28 million. This was higher than the number of employed persons of 48.84 million in June 2023 and 48.87 million in May 2024,” it said.
Meanwhile, the underemployment rate in June 2024 increased to 12.1 percent from 12.0 percent in June 2023 and 9.9 percent in May 2024.
“In terms of magnitude, 6.08 million of the 50.28 million employed individuals in June 2024 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,” the PSA said.
By broad industry group, the services sector continued as the top sector in terms of the number of employed persons with a share of 58.7 percent of the total number of employed persons in June 2024.
The agriculture and industry sectors accounted for 21.1 percent and 20.2 percent of the total number of employed persons in the reference month, respectively.
The top five sub-sectors in terms of annual increase in the number of employed persons in June 2024 were Construction with 938,000; wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, 527,000; accommodation and food service activities, 396,000; manufacturing, 353,000; and transportation and storage, 323,000.
Wage and salary workers continued to account for the largest share of employed persons, accounting for 63.8 percent of the total number of employed persons in June 2024.
This was followed by self-employed persons without any paid employee at 27.0 percent and unpaid family workers at 5 percent. Employers in own family-operated farm or business had the lowest share of 1.7 percent.
Among wage and salary workers, those employed in private establishments comprised the largest share of 80.5 percent or 51.4 percent of the total number of employed persons in June 2024.
This was followed by those employed in government or government-controlled corporations with a share of 12.5 percent of the wage and salary workers or 8.0 percent of the total number of employed persons during the period.
