The country's unemployment rate in April marginally increased month-on-month as the El Niño phenomenon made more jobless Filipinos in the agriculture sector, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Thursday.

Preliminary results of the statistics agency’s April round of the Labor Force Survey (LFS) showed that there were 2.04 million unemployed Filipino workers in April, slightly up from the 2 million jobless workers in March.

Year-on-year, the number of unemployed Filipinos in April 2024 was lower than the 2.26 million jobless Pinoys in April 2023.

April's unemployment rate was the highest in three months at 4 percent, rising from 3.9 percent in March but below the 4.5 percent rates of April 2023 and January 2024.

At a press conference on Thursday, PSA chief and National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa said the number of people working in agriculture and forestry fell year-on-year to 818,000. 

“This could be because of the impact of El Niño… as production was lower, you have that decrease also in employed (persons),” Mapa said.

Unemployment

The underemployment rate—the proportion of people who are currently employed but are still seeking more work or longer working hours relative to the total employed population—also rose to 14.6 percent in April from 11 percent in March.

This translates to 7.04 million Filipinos seeking a second job or longer working hours in April, up from 5.39 million in the previous month.

April's unemployment rate was the highest since July 2023, when it was at 15.9 percent.

Mapa noted that employment in the wholesale and retail trade as well as motorcycle and car maintenance rose, though the workers “weren’t all absorbed as full-time workers.” 

Employment rate

Similarly, the employment rate dropped to 96 percent in April from 96.1 percent in March. The number of employed individuals in April decreased to 48.36 million from 49.15 million in March.

But April's employment figure of 48.36 million was higher than April 2023's 48.06 million.

With 61.4 percent of the total number of workers over the period, the services sector continued to be the largest sector in terms of employment. 

In April, the agriculture and industry sectors accounted for 20.3 percent and 18.3 percent of the employed persons, respectively.

Accommodation and food service activities (638,000), construction (378,000), transportation and storage (289,000), manufacturing (285,000), and other service activities (200,000) have the fastest employment growth.

PSA said the wage and salary workers made up the greatest percentage of employed people (63.6 percent), followed by self-employed individuals without any paid workers (27.9 percent) and unpaid family workers (6.5 percent). 

With a 2.1 percent share, employers on their own family-run farm or business had the lowest percentage.

With 78.7 percent of wage and salary workers, or 50 percent of those employed, working in private establishments continued to hold the largest share of wage and salary workers.

Those who worked for the government or for companies under its control came next, making up 14 percent of all employed people or 8.9 percent of pay and salary earners.

In spite of this, a rise in full-time employment (6.1 million) and middle-skilled occupations (1.3 million) was reported by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), “indicating improved job quality.”

“The government's massive infrastructure push is expected to create opportunities in several priority sectors, such as energy, logistics, and tourism. The government will also explore opportunities for quality job growth in the mining sector, leveraging available technologies to develop value-adding activities such as mineral processing," said NEDA Secretary Arsenio Balisacan.