In the Philippines, the unemployment rate in March 2021 stood at 7.1%. This is the lowest reported rate covering the period of the Covid-19 pandemic since April 2020 when the unemployment rate stood at 17.6%, according to data from the Philippines Statistics Authority.

The jobless rate in March is also down from the 8.8% rate in February 2021.

The number of unemployed Filipinos 15 years and over in March 2021 was estimated at 3.44 million, a decline of about 747,000 unemployed persons from February 2021.

At the same time, the employment rate rose to 92.9% in March 2021, from 91.2% in February 2021.

The employment rate among men (93.4 %) was higher compared to women (92.2 %) but men also had higher underemployment rate (18.1%) than women (13.4%).

By broad industry group, the services sector remained as the dominant employment sector accounting for 56.0% of the total employed persons in March 2021. This was followed by the agriculture sector which accounted for nearly one-fourth (24.6%), while the industry sector had a share of nearly one-fifth (19.4%) of the total employed persons in March 2021.

Meanwhile, by occupation group, elementary occupation (laborers/unskilled workers) accounted for the largest proportion of employed persons (29.8%), followed by the service and sales workers (20.7%), and skilled agricultural, forestry, and fishery workers (12.3%).

The labour force participation rate bounced back to 65.0% in March 2021, or a total of 48.77 million Filipinos 15 years old and over who were either employed or unemployed. It was the highest Labour Force Participation Rate since April 2014.

The data from the PSA also found that the average weekly hours of work of an employed person improved in March 2021 at 39.7 hours compared to the 38.9 hours and 39.3 hours reported in February 2021 and January 2021, respectively.