Unemployment rate continues to ascend according to PSA

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) announced that the unemployment rate in the Philippines increased to 4% in April, up from 3.9% in March. This translates to 2.04 million unemployed Filipino workers in April, a slight rise from the 2 million recorded in March.

The underemployment rate saw a significant increase, reaching 14.6% in April 2024, compared to 12.9 percent in April 2023 and 13.9% in January 2024. According to the PSA, 7.04 million of the 48.36 million employed individuals sought additional hours of work, a new job, or a job with longer hours in April 2024.

This marks the highest underemployment rate since July 2023’s 15.9%.

The services sector accounted for the majority of jobs, comprising 61.4% of total employment, followed by agriculture at 20.3% and industry at 18.3%. The accommodation and food service activities sub-sector saw the largest year-on-year job increase with 638,000 new jobs, followed by construction (378,000), transportation and storage (289,000), manufacturing (285,000), and other service activities (200,000).

Additionally, agriculture and forestry experienced the highest job losses, shedding 818,000 jobs. Wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles lost 587,000 jobs, while human health and social work activities, public administration and defense, and real estate activities also reported annual decreases in employment.