Nearly 900,000 more Filipinos jobless

Nearly 900,000 more Filipinos were unemployed in September compared with a year earlier, as the country struggled to generate enough jobs to keep pace with its expanding workforce.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released on Friday showed that the number of unemployed Filipinos climbed to 2.86 million in September from 1.96 million a year earlier, pushing the unemployment rate to 5.4 percent from 3.8 percent.

The latest figure was also higher than the 2.77 million unemployed Filipinos recorded in August, when the jobless rate stood at 5.3 percent.

Despite the worsening unemployment figures, the number of employed Filipinos increased to 50.32 million from 49.60 million a year earlier, indicating that job creation failed to keep pace with the expanding workforce.

The country’s labor force grew to 53.19 million from 51.56 million in September 2025, while the labor force participation rate remained unchanged at 64.5 percent.

“In September 2026, the average weekly hours worked per employed person was estimated at 40.1 hours, lower than the 40.5 hours recorded in September 2025, but higher than the 39.2 hours observed in August 2026,” the PSA report said.

Meanwhile, millions of Filipinos who already had jobs continued to seek additional income opportunities or longer working hours.

The PSA said the underemployment rate eased slightly to 11.0 percent from 11.1 percent a year earlier and 11.9 percent in August, translating to 5.56 million employed Filipinos seeking additional work.

Employment trends also remained uneven across industries, with construction recording the largest annual job losses at 271,000, followed by arts, entertainment and recreation at 163,000 and information and communication at 105,000.

On the other hand, accommodation and food services generated 834,000 additional jobs, followed by transportation and storage with 254,000 and other service activities with 174,000.

Young Filipinos also faced a tougher labor market, with the youth employment rate falling to 84.7 percent from 88.4 percent a year earlier.

Of the 6.23 million employed youth, about 715,000 were underemployed, reflecting continued pressure on younger workers seeking sufficient employment.

The services sector remained the country’s largest employer, accounting for 62.2 percent of total employment, followed by agriculture at 20.7 percent and industry at 17.1 percent.