The unemployment rate in the Philippines was estimated to be 4.5% in September 2023, according to preliminary data from the Philippine Statistics Authority. This equates to 2.26 million unemployed persons. The unemployment rate is up slightly from the 4.4% in August but still lower than the 5.0% in September 2022.

Meanwhile, there were estimated to be 47.7 million employed persons aged 15 years old and over in September 2023 in the Philippines. This puts the employment rate at 95.5%, higher than September 2022’s 95.0% but slightly worse than the 95.5% in August 2023.

The labour force participation rate in September 2023 was estimated to be 64.1%, lower than both the 65.2% in September 2022 and the 64.7% in August 2023.

By broad industry group, the services sector is by far the largest sector in terms of the number of employed persons, with a share of 60.4% in September 2023. Meanwhile, the agriculture and industry sectors accounted for 21.5% and 18.1% of employed persons in the Philippines, respectively.

The sub-sectors that saw the greatest annual increase in the number of employed persons in September 2023 were the following:

1. Accommodation and food service activities (+608,000)     

2. Administrative and support service activities (+535,000)   

3. Construction (+481,000)

4. Transportation and storage (+255,000)      

5. Fishing and aquaculture (+193,000)

On average, an employed person worked 40.8 hours per week in September 2023, the same as in August 2023. This was higher than the 39.6 hours worked per week on average in September last year.

Wage and salary workers accounted for almost two-thirds of employed persons, with 64.7% in September 2023. This was followed by self-employed persons without paid employees at 25.9% and unpaid family workers at 6.7%. Employers who own family-operated farms or businesses had the lowest share, with 2.6%.

Of those wage and salary workers, 78.2% are employed in private establishments. This equates to just over half (50.6%) of the total employed. Meanwhile, 14.7% of wage and salary workers (9.5% of the total employed) were in government or government-controlled corporation roles in September 2023.