THE NUMBER OF EMPLOYED FILIPINOS ROSE, BUT UNEMPLOYMENT ALSO INCREASED
The estimated number of employed Filipinos reached 50.66 million in June, up from 49.63 million in May.
At the same time, the unemployment rate increased slightly from 4.8 percent to 4.9 percent. About 2.59 million Filipinos were unemployed in June, compared with roughly 2.50 million in May.
The reason both numbers can rise at the same time is that the labor force also became larger. About 53.25 million Filipinos were either working or looking for work in June, up from 52.13 million in May.
Underemployment was 12.1 percent, representing about 6.11 million employed Filipinos who wanted more working hours, another job, or a job with longer hours. That was slightly lower than May’s 12.2 percent but higher than the 11.4 percent recorded in June last year.
Young workers had weaker numbers compared with a year earlier. The employment rate among Filipinos aged 15 to 24 fell to 86.5 percent from 90.6 percent in June 2025.
The industries also moved in very different directions. Accommodation and food services, administrative support, government, education, and arts and recreation recorded some of the larger employment gains compared with a year earlier.
Wholesale and retail trade, meanwhile, lost an estimated 903,000 workers compared with June last year. Fishing and aquaculture lost around 467,000.
The June Labor Force Survey does not track the same individual workers from one month to the next, so it would be wrong to say that one million Filipinos personally “found jobs.” What the survey shows is that the estimated number of employed people increased while the number of unemployed people also rose.
WHAT TO WATCH
Watch whether unemployment falls in July and whether the weaker youth employment numbers improve.