Bad weather pushes PHL jobless rate to 4.8%

By Erika Mae P. Sinaking, Reporter

The Philippines’ unemployment rate rose to 4.8% in May as job losses in agriculture, driven by bad weather, outweighed employment gains in services and other industries, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Wednesday.

The unemployment rate increased from 3.9% a year earlier and 4.7% in April, while the number of jobless Filipinos rose to 2.5 million from 2.03 million in May 2025 and 2.41 million a month earlier.

“There was a significant drop in the number of employed persons in agriculture and forestry,” National Statistician Claire Dennis S. Mapa told a news briefing. “This is likely the impact of weather conditions in May.”

Mr. Mapa said employment in paddy rice farming declined by 734,000 workers from a year earlier, while corn cultivation lost 428,000 jobs.

The employment rate slipped to 95.2% from 96.1% a year earlier and 95.3% in April. Total employment reached 49.63 million, up by 738,000 from the previous month but down 663,000 from May last year.

Services remained the country’s biggest employer, accounting for 61.8% of total employment, followed by agriculture at 19.9% and industry at 18.3%.

Administrative and support service activities posted the biggest annual employment gain, adding 329,000 jobs, driven mainly by call centers and private security services.

Despite higher unemployment, job quality improved as the underemployment rate fell to 12.2% from 13.1% a year earlier and 15.2% in April.

Mr. Mapa attributed the decline to fewer workers seeking additional hours, noting that average weekly hours worked increased to 41.1 hours from 39.8 hours a year earlier and 40.2 hours in April.

“More people worked more than 40 hours per week this May,” he said, adding that about 34.36 million workers logged more than 40 hours during the week.

For the first five months of 2026, the average unemployment rate rose to 5.1% from 4% a year earlier.