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Jean Mangaluz - Philstar.com
February 6, 2025 | 11:40am
Workers unload boxes of fruits from a delivery vehicle at a shopping street in Manila on Dec. 23, 2024.
AFP / Ted Aljibe
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Thursday, January 6 that 1.63 million Filipinos were unemployed as of December 2024, representing 3.1% of the labor force.
This marked a slight improvement from November 2024's unemployment figure of 1.66 million but was marginally higher than the 1.60 million recorded in December 2023.
The employment rate for December 2024 stood at 96.9%, translating to 50.19 million employed individuals. However, this was lower than the 50.52 million employed in December 2023, though it showed an increase from November 2024’s employment total of 49.54 million.
“This was lower than the number of employed persons of 50.52 million in December 2023, but higher than the number of employed persons in November 2024 at 49.54 million,” the PSA said.
The underemployment rate—a measure of workers seeking additional hours or jobs—rose slightly from 10.8% in November to 10.9% in December 2024.
Sectoral breakdown
The services sector remained the largest employer, accounting for a significant 60.5% of the labor force.
Wage and salary workers made up the majority of employed individuals at 63.1%, while self-employed workers contributed 28.5%, and unpaid family workers constituted 6.8%.
In terms of industry distribution, the agriculture industry employed 21.3% while the industry sector had 18.3%.
Five sectors saw notable employment increases in December 2024:
- Transportation and storage: +555,000
- Construction: +263,000
- Administrative and support service activities: +223,000
- Public administration and defense; compulsory social security: +211,000
- Human health and social work activities: +197,000
Conversely, several industries saw the loss of workers as well, with the agriculture and forestry sector losing more than 1.5 million workers.
- Agriculture and forestry: -1.56 million
- Manufacturing: -387,000
- Other service activities: -166,000
- Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles: -106,000
Average work hours. Filipinos worked an average of 40.9 hours per week in December 2024—higher than the average of 40.6 hours in December 2023 but slightly lower than November’s average of 41.1 hours, the PSA said.
