Jobless Filipinos increased to 2.11 million in May — PSA

The number of unemployed Filipinos rose to 2.11 million in May this year from 2.04 million in April, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported Monday.

At a press conference, PSA chief and National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa said a 4.1% unemployment rate was recorded in May 2024, which was slightly higher than the 4% logged in the previous month.

Meanwhile, the country’s employment rate in May stood at 95.9% — an improvement from the 95.7% in May last year, but lower than the 96.0% in April 2024.

Mapa also noted that 4.82 million out of the 48.87 million employed individuals were underemployed or those seeking additional working hours or to have additional jobs, in May.

This translated to a 9.9% underemployment rate, lower than the 14.6% tally or 7.04 million underemployed individuals in April.

The latest Labor Force Survey also revealed that the average weekly hours that an employed individual worked in May was at 40.6 hours per week. This was higher than the 39.3 hours per week in May 2023 and 40.5 hours per week in April this year.

The services sector continued to be on the top in terms of the number of employed persons (48.87 million) with a share of 60.1%.

The agriculture sector accounted for 20.8% of the employed persons, while the industry sector had 19.1%

From April 2024 to May 2024, the top five sub-sectors with the largest increase in the number of employed persons were:

• Agriculture and forestry (+610,000);
• Construction (+391,000);
• Public administration and defense; compulsory social security (+309,000);
• Education (+116,000); and
• Manufacturing (+107,000).

On the other hand, these are the sub-sectors with the largest drop in the number of employed persons month-on-month:

• Accommodation and food service activities (-322,000);
• Fishing and aquaculture (-241,000);
• Administrative and support service activities (-135,000);
• Professional, scientific and technical activities (-101,000); and
• Other service activities (-74,000).

— RSJ, GMA Integrated News