Fewer Filipinos held steady footing in the workforce midway through the year, as the share of those without jobs climbed to its highest point in three months.
The Philippine Statistics Authority disclosed Thursday that the country’s unemployment rate settled at 4.9 percent in June, a slight climb from the 4.8 percent logged in May. The reading marks the steepest level since March, when joblessness touched 5.0 percent.
Measured against the same month in 2025, the deterioration is sharper. A year earlier, only 3.7 percent of the labor force was counted as unemployed — well below June’s mark.
Not every indicator moved in the same direction. Underemployment, which captures workers seeking longer hours or an additional source of income, eased to 12.1 percent from the 12.2 percent posted in May. That improvement, however, did not fully reverse the longer trend: the June 2025 figure stood at a lower 11.4 percent.
Employment, correspondingly, slipped to 95.1 percent. The rate had reached 95.2 percent the previous month and a firmer 96.3 percent in June of last year.
One area showed clearer strength. Labor force participation reached 65.1 percent in June, a meaningful gain over May’s 63.8 percent, signaling that more Filipinos were either working or actively hunting for work. Even so, participation fell just shy of the 65.7 percent recorded twelve months prior.
