The Philippines' unemployment rate rose to 5.3% in July 2025, from 3.7% in June, according to a report by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). This equates to about 2.59 million Filipinos unemployed.
The employment rate also dropped to 94.7% from 96.3%. The number of employed people reached 46.05 million in July. However, underemployment or workers with insufficient income also increased, from 12.1% to 14.6%, or equivalent to 6.80 million who want to increase their hours or find better jobs.
Of the total number of employed persons, 68.7% are wage and salary workers, 24.7% are self-employed, 4.0% are unpaid family workers, and 2.6% are employers in their own businesses. The largest number is still in the service sector (62.8%), followed by industry (18.7%) and agriculture (18.5%).
Large increases in employees were seen in administrative and support services (296,000), transportation and storage (208,000), health and social work (169,000), manufacturing (109,000) and education (96,000).
Meanwhile, large employee reductions occurred in agriculture and forestry (1.38 million), wholesale and retail trade (897,000), fishing and aquaculture (173,000), construction (147,000) and accommodation and food service (69,000).
