MANILA, Philippines — The number of unemployed Filipinos further decreased during the holiday season in 2023, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Wednesday.
In a press conference on Wednesday morning, National Statistician and PSA chief Claire Dennis Mapa reported that the number of unemployed persons ages 15 and above declined to 1.6 million in December 2023, down from 1.83 million in the previous month.
Related Stories
This means that the number of jobless individuals decreased by 617,000, lower than the 2.22 million unemployed Filipinos in the same period in 2022.
According to the PSA, the following sectors had the highest annual decrease in employed persons:
- Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (-660,000)
- Administrative and support service activities (-250,000)
- Fishing and aquaculture (-159,000)
- Financial and insurance activities (-132,000)
- Arts and entertainment (-16,000)
The PSA also reported that there were 6.01 million underemployed individuals or those who expressed a desire to have an additional job or hours of work in December 2023, a slight elevation from the 5.79 million in the preceeding month.
The latest underemployment figures are lower than the 6.20 million in December 2022.
Employment rate
The Philippines also posted a 96.9% employment rate equivalent to 50.52 million Filipinos who have jobs in December 2023. This was a marginal increase from November 2023’s 49.64 million employed Filipinos.
This was also a modest uptick from the December 2022 numbers of 49 million.
According to the Mapa, the following sectors had the most increase in employment:
- Construction - 777,000
- Agriculture and forestry - 715,000
- Accommodation and food service activities - 498,000
- Transportation and storage - 174, 000
- Human health and social work activities - 140, 000
Mapa said that the country’s employment rate is expected to be maintained or improved as the confidence of the labor force is high.
“A portion of them (jobs) are actually retained in January,” Mapa said.
Wage and salary workers hold the largest share in the percentage among employed individuals, comprising 62.7% of the total employed persons in December 2023.
This is followed by self-employed individuals without any hired employees at 27.4%, while unpaid family workers constituted 7.8%.
Employers in their family-operated farm or business represented the smallest share at 2.1%.
Meanwhile, services sector dominates the labor market with a 57.3% share in the employed numbers. This is followed by the agriculture sector with 24.4% and industry sector with 18.3%.
The labor force participation rate, or the total number of employed and unemployed individuals ages 15 and above, on the other hand, is 66.6% or 52.13 million Filipinos.
This is slightly higher than the 51.47 million Filipinos in November 2023 and the 51.22 million in December 2022.
On Tuesday, the PSA also reported a shrink in the country’s inflation rate posting a slowdown of 2.8%, the lowest since October 2020.