By Tracy Cabrera
DESPITE the best efforts by the Marcos Jr. administration to attract local and foreign investments to create more jobs, the country’s unemployment rate went up to 6.0 percent at the start of the third quarter of the year from 4.9 percent a month earlier.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported the development, signaling renewed labor market pressures amid global and domestic uncertainties triggered by increasing prices of prime commodities and other issues, including political unrest and corruption in government.
The PSA likewise disclosed that the July figure—up from the year-earlier 5.3 percent—was the highest since June 2022 when unemployment stood at 6.03 percent.
To date, some 3.14 million Filipinos were without jobs, belying a PSA report that poverty in the country has declined. The number of jobless individuals is significantly higher than the 2.58 million and 2.59 million seen a month and a year ago, respectively.
According to national Statistician Dennis Mapa, the increase in u’rmployment was largely driven by young people entering the labor market but not finding work due to several factors that include skills mismatch.
“More people joined the labor market but not all of them were able to find jobs,” Mapa shared in a media briefing.
PSA records indicated that the labor force participation rate among young Filipinos aged 15 to 24 was unchanged month on month at 33.7 percent but rose from 29.5 percent a year earlier.
Employment among the youth, meanwhile, fell to 81.4 percent from 86. 5 percent in June and 81.9 percent in July 2025.
Despite this, socioeconomic planning secretary Arsenio Balisacan asserted that present employment conditions “show both progress and challenge.”
“More Filipinos are participating in the labor market, which means that we need to intensify efforts to attract investments, especially those that create quality jobs,” Balisacan pointed out.
He cited that the overall labor force participation rate registered 63.6 percent, lower than the 65.1 percent in June but higher than the 60.7 percent in July 2025.
Underemployment, which counts as those looking for more work or an extra job, also posted an uptick of 12.9 percent from 12.1 percent a month earlier but fell from the year-ago 14.8 percent.
Employment declined to 94.0 percent from 95.1 percent and 94.7 percent a month and year earlier, respectively.
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