The Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) reaffirmed its commitment to protecting children from exploitation through expanded programs that remove minors from hazardous work while providing sustainable income to their families, officials said.

According to preliminary results of the 2025 Working Children Situation published by the Philippine Statistics Authority on 15 July 2026, there were an estimated 868,000 working children aged 5 to 17 in 2025.

Of that total, 513,000 were engaged in child labor, defined as work or economic activity that causes exploitation or harms physical, mental, or psychological development.

The figure represents a slight increase from the 509,000 child laborers recorded in 2024, but remains lower than the 678,000 reported in 2023.

The report, derived from the October 2025 Labor Force Survey, identified agriculture as the industry sector with the highest incidence of child labor.

DoLE Secretary Francis N. Tolentino said the findings underscore the need to strengthen government and community efforts to eliminate child labor, emphasizing the administration’s goal to ensure children have opportunities to learn and grow safely.

The Labor department serves as the chair of the National Council Against Child Labor and its regional counterparts, aligning its operations with the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the Philippine Program Against Child Labor, the Philippine Development Plan, and international initiatives including the ASEAN Roadmap on the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor.

In a 2025 report to the Office of the President, Tolentino said DoLE monitored 137,345 previously profiled child laborers and profiled an additional 86,872 children during the year to connect more families with government assistance.

To address economic factors driving child labor, DoLE provided P304.73 million in livelihood grants to 9,870 parents of child laborers in 2025, exceeding its annual target by 125 percent.