The employment rate in the Philippines stood at 94.2% in March 2022. This was the highest rate since April 2020 but lower than the registered employment rate in January 2020 (pre-pandemic) at 94.7%. In March 2021, the employment rate was reported at 92.9%, according to research from the Philippine Statistics Authority.

The research showed an increase of 1.50 million employed persons from February 2022 (45.48 million) to March 2022 (46.98 million). Likewise, a total 1.64 million employed individuals were added to the employed population of 45.33 million in March 2021.

At the same time, the unemployment rate in the country improved in March 2022 (posted at 5.8%) compared to 6.4% last month and 7.1% in March 2021. Approximately 2.87 million were unemployed in March 2022, down from the 3.13 million in February 2022 and 3.44 million in March 2021.

The country’s Labour Force Participation Rate in March 2022 continued to pick up at 65.4%, the highest since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. The rate in March 2022 was higher by 0.4% from the 65.0% rate reported for the same month in 2021, and higher by 1.6% from the estimate a month ago.

The average hours worked for an employed person in March 2022 was 40.6 hours. This is lower than the reported average hours worked of an employed person in February 2022 (40.8 hours) but higher than that reported in March 2021 (39.7 hours). 

By sector, the services sectors dominated the labour market contributing 57.4% share of the country’s 46.98 million employed workforce during March 2022. The agriculture and the industry sectors accounted for 25.2% and 17.4% of employed persons, respectively.

When comparing March 2021 to March 2022, the sub-sectors with the highest increase were Agriculture and forestry (823,000), and Administrative and support service activities (447,000). In contrast, Construction (-754,000) and Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor and motorcycles (-239,000) reported annual declines.