Philippines records annual growth in employment rate in June 2024

On the other hand, the unemployment rate in June 2024 dropped to 3.1% year-on-year, down from 4.5% in June 2023.

The Philippines posted an estimated employment rate of 96.9% in June 2024 — higher than both the employment rate estimated in June 2023 (95.5%) and May 2024 (95.9%).

In tandem, the number of employed persons in June 2024 stood at 50.28mn. This was also a growth from what was previously recorded — 48.84mn in June 2023, and 48.87mn in May 2024, according to data by the Philippine Statistics Authority. 

On the other hand, the unemployment rate in June 2024 dropped to 3.1% year-on-year, down from 4.5% in June 2023. On a monthly basis, this was also a decline from 4.1% in May 2024.

This translates to a registered 1.62mn in terms of number of unemployed individuals in June 2024. This was lower than the number of unemployed individuals in June 2023 at 2.33mn and in May 2024 at 2.11mn.

Meanwhile, the labor force participation rate (LFPR) for the month stood at 66.0%, lower than the estimated LFPR in June 2023 (66.1%) and May 2024 at (64.8%).

The Philippines also recorded an average of 40.9 hours worked per week by employed individual worked in June 2024, up from the average hours worked in a week in June last year at 40.0 hours and in May 2024 at 40.6 hours.

Lastly, the underemployment rate in June 2024 increased to 12.1%, from June 2023 (12.0%) and May 2024 (9.9%). In terms of magnitude, 6.08mn out of the 50.28mn 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.

Breaking it down even further, the services sector continued as the top sector in terms of the number of employed persons at 58.7% of the total number of employed persons in June 2024. This was followed by the agriculture and industry sectors, which accounted for 21.1% and 20.2% of the total number of employed persons in the reference month respectively.

The top five sub-sectors which recorded the highest annual increase in the number of employed persons in June 2024 were the following.

• Construction (938,000),
• Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (527,000),
• Accommodation and food service activities (396,000),
• Manufacturing (353,000), and
• Transportation and storage (323,000).

Conversely, the following five sub-sectors which recorded the highest annual decrease in the number of employed persons are as follows:

• Agriculture and forestry (-916,000),
• Public administration and defense; compulsory social security (-340,000),
• Fishing and aquaculture (-81,000),
• Education (-71,000), and
• Financial and insurance activities (-42,000).

Wage and salary workers continued to account for the largest share of employed persons, making up 63.8% of the total number of employed persons for the month. This was followed by:

• self-employed persons without any paid employee (27%),
• unpaid family workers (5%), and
• employers in own family-operated farm or business had the lowest share of (1.7%).