The Philippines’ unemployment rate decreased to 4.3 percent in January, down from 4.5 percent in the same period last year, as the economy continued to create more jobs to accommodate new entrants to the labor force, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) report on Thursday.
The number of unemployed Filipinos stood at 2.16 million in January, the same number as recorded in January 2024. Meanwhile, the labor force increased to 50.7 million in January 2025, compared to 48.1 million a year earlier.
The employment rate in January 2025 was 95.7 percent, which translates to 48.5 million employed individuals. This marks a notable increase from 45.9 million employed people in January 2024, suggesting that the economy generated 2.6 million new jobs over the last 12 months.
The labor force participation rate in January 2025 rose to 63.9 percent, up from 61.1 percent in the same period last year. This corresponds to 50.65 million Filipinos aged 15 and older in the labor force, an increase from 48.1 million in the previous year.
Underemployment also improved, dropping to 13.3 percent in January 2025 from 13.7 percent in January 2024.
By industry, services remained the dominant sector, employing 61.6 percent of the workforce, followed by agriculture at 21.1 percent and industry at 17.2 percent. Services and agriculture absorbed the slack from the decline in the industrial sector, which dropped from 18.7 percent in 2024.
In terms of employment figures, services employed 29.9 million people, agriculture accounted for 10.2 million jobs, and industry employed 8.34 million individuals this year. In comparison, in January 2024, the industrial sector employed 8.58 million, agriculture 10.2 million, and services 27.9 million.
