Jobless Filipinos rose to 2.06M in April 2025, says PSA
The number of Filipinos without jobs or livelihoods rose to over two million in April 2025 as more people entered the labor force, seeking jobs, during the period but only few were absorbed by the market, according to the results of the Philippine Statistics Authority's latest Labor Force Survey.
At a press briefing on Friday, National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa reported that unemployed persons, ages 15 and above, increased slightly to 2.06 million in the fourth month of the year from 1.93 million in March 2025.
Year-on-year, jobless individuals climbed by 23,000 from 2.04 million in April 2024, according to the PSA chief.
As a percentage of 50.74 million participants in the labor force —who are actively looking for labor opportunities during the period — the number of unemployed persons translated to an unemployment rate of 4.1%, up from 3.9% in March and 4% in April last year.
'Dumami kasi ang mga kasama sa labor force, labor force participation, so siya 'yung factor… 'pag tumataas ang labor force participation, hindi naman lahat na-absorb lahat para maging employed persons,' Mapa said.
(The increase in the number of those joining the labor force was the factor… when labor force participation rises, not everyone is absorbed to become employed persons.)
Labor force participants grew by 340,000 from April 2024 and by about 780,000 from March 2025's 49.96 million.
Of the 340,000 year-on-year growth in labor force participation, the PSA chief said about 317,000 became employed while 23,000 were not absorbed.
'Despite the slight uptick in unemployment, the Philippine labor market continues to demonstrate resilience amid global headwinds. We remain on track to meet our target unemployment range of 4.4% to 4.7% set under the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028,' said Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev) officer-in-charge and Undersecretary for Policy and Planning Rosemarie Edillon. —AOL, GMA Integrated News
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