The Philippines employment rate rose to 95.2% in February from 93.6% in February 2022 — which translates to 48.8 million employed people, according to the Philippines Department of Labor and employment.

Reasons behind the increase include an expansion in employment in the wholesale and retail trade sector, up 701,000 jobs; accommodation and food service activities, up 580,000; agriculture and forestry, up 554,000; other services activities, up 362,000; and fishing and aquaculture, up 340,000.

The department also reported the number of unemployment workers fell to 4.8% in February from 6.4% in February 2022.

In addition, the youth unemployment rate fell to 9.1% in February from 14.3% in February 2022.