Philippine jobless rate jumps to 5% in March

The Philippine unemployment rate in March rose to 5%, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), as labor force participation declined with more Filipinos returning to school or focusing on household duties, while higher fuel costs triggered job losses in the fishing sector.

Preliminary results from the March 2026 Labor Force Survey (LFS) released on Wednesday showed the jobless rate jumped to 5% in March, from 3.9% in the same month a year ago.

However, it was a slight improvement from the 5.1% jobless rate in February.

PSA data showed the number of unemployed Filipinos reached 2.58 million in March, up by 645,000 from 1.93 million a year earlier, but down by 84,000 from the 2.66 million recorded in February.

At the same time, job quality improved as the underemployment rate fell to 12.3% in March, from 13.4% in the same month last year. However, it was higher than 11.8% unemployment rate in February.

The underemployment rate is the proportion of those with jobs seeking additional work hours or an additional job.

The labor force participation rate (LFPR) inched up to 63.3% in March, translating to 51.65 million Filipinos aged 15 years and over who were in the labor force.

This was higher than the 62.9% LFPR (49.95 million) a year ago, but lower than the 63.8% (52.09 million) in February. — EMPS