1.62 million Filipinos jobless in June, says PSA

MANILA, Philippines (Updated 10:32 a.m.) — A total of 1.62 million Filipinos remain unemployed as of June 2024, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

The PSA’s June labor survey showed that the Philippine employment rate rose to 96.9% this June, which translates to 50.28 million.

While unemployment fell to 3.1%, this still translates to more than one million Filipinos who are unemployed.

“In terms of magnitude, the number of unemployed individuals in June 2024 was registered at 1.62 million. This was lower than the number of unemployed individuals in June 2023 at 2.33 million and in May 2024 at 2.11 million,” the PSA survey said.

PSA Undersecretary Dennis Mapa said the agency surveyed 11,028 households, or 33,161 people, over 15 years old. Data was collected within 18 days, from June 8 to 28.

The PSA survey also found that the service industry is the sector with the largest pool of employed people, composing 58.7% of the country’s laborers. Meanwhile, the agriculture sector shares 19.6% of the employment pie and the industry sector shares 19%.    

Underemployment rises

Despite the rise in employment, underemployment also rose to 12.1% in June from 9.9% in May.

“In terms of magnitude, 6.08 million of the 50.28 million employed individuals in June 2024 expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or to have additional job, or to have a new job with longer hours of work,” the PSA said.    

Mapa said this was normal given the boom in employment, and the same trend was observed in previous surveys. Not everyone who gets a job is fully employed, he explained.

“Not everyone has what we call a full-time job, some of them are full-time, some of them work less than forty hours or perhaps they want another job.,” Mapa said at a press briefing.

The PSA also found that wage and salary workers account for 63.8% of the total number employed in June 2024, with self-employed persons without a paid employee following at 27%. There were also employers in family-operated farms or businesses at 1.7%.