PH unemployment climbs to 5.4% in September 2026, jobless Filipinos at 2.86M

The number of jobless Filipinos rose to 2.86 million in September 2026, bringing the country’s unemployment rate to 5.4%, data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Friday showed.

The latest figure was higher than the 2.77 million unemployed individuals recorded in August, when the jobless rate stood at 5.3%. Year-on-year, the number of unemployed Filipinos surged from 1.96 million the same month last year, when the unemployment rate was 3.8%.

The number of employed Filipinos, meanwhile, increased to 50.32 million from 49.6 million a year ago and 49.79 million in the previous month. The employment rate, however, declined to 94.6% from 96.2% in September 2025, and 94.7% in August.

Among major industries, the biggest drop in employment was seen in the construction sector which shed 271,000 workers year-on-year to bring its total workforce to 4.70 million, which National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa attributed to higher material costs and slower public construction activities.

Declines were also seen in arts, entertainment and recreation (-163,000); information and communication (-105,000); and wholesale and retail trade and repair of motorcycles (-101,000).

Month-on-month, the biggest subsectors with the largest drops were construction (-416,000); agriculture and forestry (-269,000); administrative and support service activities (-245,000); transportation and storage (-170,000); and professional, scientific, and technical activities (-154,000).

There were 289,000 contact center information clerk jobs that were lost year-on-year in September, which includes the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector.

Wage and salary workers accounted for 63.0% of the workforce in September. Majority or 78% of whom were employed in private establishments, while 15% worked in government or government-controlled corporation.

Self-employed individuals without any paid employees accounted for 28.1%, unpaid family workers for 7.3%, and employers in their own family-operated farm or business at 1.5%.

Employed Filipinos worked an average of 40.1 hours in September, lower than the 40.5 hours recorded last year, but higher than the 39.2 hours recorded in August.

Of the employed individuals, 5.56 million expressed the desire to have additional hours or work in their present job, or to have an additional job, or to have a new job with longer hours of work.

This translated to an underemployment rate of 11.0%, slightly lower than the 11.1% in September 2025, and down from the 11.9% in August.

This comes as the labor force — which includes Filipinos aged 15 and above — expanded by 1.63 million to 53.19 million from 51.56 million a year earlier. The labor force participation rate remained unchanged at 64.5%.

Out of the additions to the labor force, 988,000 were aged 15 to 24; some 451,000 were aged 35 to 44; and 433,000 were aged 45 to 54.

“‘Yung nadagdag sa ating employed persons ay 721,000 and then ‘yung 909,000 ay walang trabaho. Ang pumasok sa labor market natin, 1.61 million, mas marami ‘yung unemployed na nadagdag kaysa dun sa employed persons,” Mapa said.

Data for the Labor Force Survey was collected from September 8 to 28, 2026. —AOL, GMA News