The rate of joblessness eased in November 2025 as the number of unemployed Filipinos fell to 2.25 million. This brought the rate down to 4.4 percent, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Wednesday, January 7.
The latest figure marked an improvement from October when 2.54 million Filipinos were jobless. Back then, the unemployment rate stood at 5 percent.
This follows a slight uptick in the employment rate to 95.6 percent in November. This translated to about 49.26 million employed Filipinos, up from 48.62 million or 95 percent a month earlier.
Labor force participation likewise inched modestly to 64 percent equivalent to 51.52 million Filipinos. This compared with 63.6 percent or 51.16 million in October.
National Statistician and PSA chief Claire Dennis Mapa, at a press briefing on Wednesday, attributed the minimal month-on-month increase in employment but the higher year-on-year decline to the “strong typhoons that the country experienced in the month of November despite the onset of the holidays season, which brought a seasonal surge in labor demand.
In terms of month-on-month increase in employed persons, the top five sub-sectors with the largest growths were as follows: Other service activities (621,000), Wholesale and retail trade (356,000), Education (173,000), Construction (143,000), and Accommodation and food service activities (90,000).
Meanwhile, the top five sub-sectors with the largest drop in the number of employed persons were the following: Agriculture and forestry (517,000), Public administration and defense (121,000), Fishing and aquaculture (78,000), Financial and insurance activities (73,000), and Manufacturing (64,000).
Year-on-year, the top five sub-sectors with the highest decrease in employment are as follows: Accommodation and food service activities (309,000), Wholesale and retail trade (258,000), Other service activities (250,000), Manufacturing (150,000), and Fishing and aquaculture (56,000). (Philippine Daily Inquirer/GMA Integrated News)
