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Jean Mangaluz - Philstar.com
January 7, 2026 | 1:00pm
Applicants flock to the "Trabaho para sa Pinoys" job fair at a mall in Manila on Monday for employment opportunities, coinciding with the observance of National Heroes Day on Aug. 25, 2025.
The STAR / Edd Gumban
MANILA, Philippines — Around 2.25 million Filipinos were jobless in November 2025, translating into an unemployment rate of 4.4%, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Wednesday, January 7.
This is a sharper annual increase compared to November 2024, which had an unemployment rate of 3.2%, or 1.66 million people.
In terms of monthly rates, the November 2025 unemployment rate decreased from October 2025, going from 5.0% to 4.4%.
Meanwhile, the employment rate in November 2025 was 95.6%. This translates to 49.26 million people being employed that month.
The PSA also said that the underemployment rate declined in November 2025, decreasing to 10.4% from 12.0% the previous month.
This means that 5.11 million people expressed the need to have more work hours or a secondary job.
The average Filipino worked an average of 40.4 hours a week in November 2025.
The PSA said that the services sector made up the majority of employment in the country, numbering 62.1% against agriculture (20%) and industry (17.9%).
In terms of sub-sectors, three groups had the highest employment: wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (20.5%), agriculture and forestry (17.7%), and construction (9.8%).
The following subsectors posted the highest annual increase of employed persons as of November 2025, compared to the same month in 2024:
- Public administration and defense; compulsory social security: Up by 185,000
- Education: Up by 176,000
- Administrative and support service activities: Up by 99,000
- Construction: 86,000
- Information and communication: Up by 82,000
Meanwhile, the following sub-sectors suffered the biggest year-on-year decreases:
- Accommodation and food service activities: Down by 309,000
- Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles: Down by 258,000
- Other service activities: Down by 250,000
- Manufacturing: Down by 150,000
- Fishing and aquaculture: Down by 56,000
The Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev) said that job losses were high in areas hit by severe typhoons, which disrupted economic activity.
“The government is prioritizing investments in skills development, lifelong learning, and social protection systems to enable workers to transition across sectors and withstand economic shocks. Strengthening workforce competitiveness is one of the key elements to attract investments that generate quality jobs,” DEPDev Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said in a statement.
