The country’s unemployment rate jumped in January following the easing of seasonal demand for labor after the 2023 holidays, while fewer job seekers were recorded in the first month of 2024.

Philippine Statistics Authority data on Friday showed the number of unemployed persons aged 15 and above climbed to 2.15 million in January 2024, up from 1.60 million in December 2023.

This indicates that there were 228,000 more unemployed people last January. However, the latest figure was lower than the 2.38 million Filipinos without jobs in the same period in 2022.

The unemployment rate for the entire labor force of 48.09 million stood at 4.50 percent in January, an increase from the 3.60 percent recorded in December 2023.

Every quarter, the unemployment rate also increased. The unemployment rate in October 2023 stood at 4.20 percent or 2.09 million jobless Filipinos.

The increase in the number of out-of-work Filipinos followed a period where the unemployment rate reached its lowest point in nearly 20 years in December 2023.

In a press briefing, PSA Chief and National Statistician Dennis Mapa attributed the increase in the unemployment rate partly to the extra but temporary economic activities that occur during the holidays.

For example, unpaid family workers assisting in bazaars and shops may have decided to leave the labor force to resume schooling or household responsibilities.

“Our seasonal activities during the fourth quarter—some of them were retained because salaries and wages increased—but of course, as always, some disappeared, so our underemployment rate also increased,” Mapa said.

Meanwhile, the workforce participation rate declined to 61.1% in January 2024, marking a decrease from the 66.6% observed in December 2023. This resulted in approximately 1.8 million fewer Filipinos being part of the labor force. Among them, about 1.5 million individuals decided to pursue education or attend to household responsibilities, as per Mapa.

Mapa also noted that the majority of the changes in the composition of the labor force stemmed from declines in the “self-employed without employees” and “unpaid family workers” categories, which saw decreases of 1.48 million and 960,000 quarter-on-quarter, respectively.

Nevertheless, there were positive developments in other areas of the labor force. PSA said the number of employed Filipinos in salaried positions increased by 640,000. This is particularly encouraging as this group of workers often serves as an important gauge of job quality.

“There are classes of workers that have increased, and there are classes of workers that have decreased. But in terms of numbers, we really saw a decrease in the overall number of employed persons,” Mapa said.

Underemployment rate up

Meanwhile, the underemployment rate, which includes individuals seeking additional work or supplementary employment, rose to 13.9 percent from 11.9 percent in December, although it was lower than the 14.1 percent recorded in January 2023.

The total number of underemployed individuals reached 6.39 million. These are individuals “who have expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their current jobs or to obtain extra employment, or to secure a new job with longer working hours.”

The services sector accounted for the largest portion of employment, comprising 60.2 percent of the total, followed by agriculture at 21.4 percent and industry at 18.4 percent.

Regarding job creation, construction saw the highest increase with 500,000 new jobs, followed by transportation and storage with 155,000, and administrative and support services with 160,000.

Meanwhile, wholesale and retail trade and motor vehicle and motorcycle repair experienced the most significant job losses, totaling 1.51 million, agriculture and forestry with 854,000, and public administration and defense and compulsory social security with 226,000.