The Philippines’ unemployment rate dropped to 3.9 percent in May 2025, down from 4.1 percent in April and 4.1 percent a year ago, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Tuesday.
The number of unemployed individuals in May stood at 2.03 million, lower than 2.11 million in May 2024 and 2.06 million in April 2025.
Meanwhile, the underemployment rate, which measures those seeking more work, rose to 13.1 percent of the total employed in May 2025, up from 9.9 percent in May 2024. This figure was lower than the 14.6 percent recorded in April 2025.
The PSA reported that 6.60 million of the 50.29 million employed individuals desired additional work hours, an extra job, or a new job with longer hours in May 2025.
The country’s labor force participation rate (LFPR) reached an estimated 65.8 percent in May 2025, higher than 64.8 percent in May 2024 and 63.7 percent in April 2025. This translates to 52.32 million Filipinos aged 15 and over in the labor force, the highest number since April 2005. About 50.97 million were in the labor force in May 2024 and 50.74 million in April 2025.
The employment rate in May 2025 increased to 96.1 percent, up from 95.9 percent in both May 2024 and April 2025. The number of employed persons rose to 50.29 million in May 2025, from 48.87 million in May 2024 and 48.67 million in April.
The services sector continued to dominate employment, accounting for 61.8 percent of total employed persons in May 2025, followed by Agriculture at 21.1 percent and Industry at 17.1 percent. By subsector, the top three employers were Wholesale and Retail Trade; Repair of Motor Vehicles (19.8 percent), Agriculture and Forestry (18.8 percent), and Construction (9.5 percent).
Wage and salary workers constituted 62.8 percent of employed persons in May 2025, with self-employed individuals without paid employees at 27.9 percent, unpaid family workers at 7.5 percent and employers in their own family-operated farm or business at 1.8 percent.
Among wage and salary workers, those in private establishments made up the largest share at 77.1 percent (or 48.4 percent of total employed persons). Those employed in government or government-controlled corporations accounted for 15.0 percent of wage and salary workers (or 9.4 percent of total employed persons).
On average, employed persons worked 39.8 hours per week in May 2025, a decrease from 40.6 hours in May 2024 and 39.9 hours in April 2025. About 91,000 employed persons (0.18 percent of the total) worked for exactly one hour in May 2025, lower than 96,000 (0.20 percent) in May 2024 but higher than 65,000 (0.13 percent) in April 2025.
The youth underemployment rate in May 2025 was 11.5 percent, an improvement from 13.4 percent in April 2025. However, it was higher than the 10.2 percent recorded in May 2024.
