PH unemployment rate down to 5% in September

The unemployment rate in the Philippines slid to five per cent in September from 5.3% in the previous month. 

According to new data released by the Philippine Statistics Agency (PSA), this translates to 2.50 million unemployed Filipinos out of 50.08 million Filipinos who were in the labor force in September 2022

At the same time, the labor force participation rate (LFPR) in September 2022 was registered at 65.2%, lower than August’s 66.1% but higher than last year’s 63.3%. 

This translates to about 50.08 million individuals who were either employed or unemployed out of the 76.83 million Filipinos aged 15 years and over. 

The underemployment rate, meanwhile, is at 15.4% as 7.33 million out of the 47.58 million Filipino workers expressed the desire to either have additional hours of work in their current job, have an additional job, or have a new job with longer hours of work.

Across sectors, services consistently dominated the labor market. It contributes the largest share of 58.9% to the total employed population. The agriculture and the industry sectors accounted for 22.5 percent and 18.6 percent of the employed persons, respectively