The number of jobless Filipinos dropped to 3.1% in June 2024, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Wednesday, August 7.
This is a significant improvement from the 4.1% recorded in May 2024 and 4.5% in June 2023.
The latest figures translate to 50.28 million Filipinos being employed, with 1.62 million individuals still jobless. This is a notable decrease from the 2.33 million unemployed in June 2023 and 2.11 million in May 2024.
Meanwhile, the labor force participation rate (LFPR) in June 2024 was recorded at 66.0%, slightly lower than the 66.1% estimated in June 2023.
However, the underemployment rate in June 2024 increased to 12.1%, up from 12.0% in June 2023 and 9.9% in May 2024. This equates to 6.08 million of the 50.28 million employed individuals in June 2024.
The services sector remained the top sector in terms of employment, accounting for 58.7% of the total number of employed persons in June 2024. The agriculture and industry sectors followed, with 21.1% and 20.2% of the total employed persons, respectively.
In June 2024, the top five sub-sectors with the largest annual increase in employment were:
- Construction (+938,000)
- Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (+527,000)
- Accommodation and food service activities (+396,000)
- Manufacturing (+353,000)
- Transportation and storage (+323,000)
Conversely, the sub-sectors with the highest annual decreases in employment were:
- Agriculture and forestry (-916,000)
- Public administration and defense; compulsory social security (-340,000)
- Fishing and aquaculture (-81,000)
- Education (-71,000)
- Financial and insurance activities (-42,000)
