2.66M Pinoys jobless in February 2026 —PSA

There were fewer jobless Filipinos in February 2026 than in January but more were unemployed compared to a year ago, as there were more people looking for jobs than those absorbed into employment, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported Wednesday.

There were 2.66 million unemployed Filipinos in February 2026, down from 2.96 million in January 2026 but higher than the 1.94 million a year ago, results of the PSA’s labor force survey (LFS) showed.

The number of Filipinos aged 15 and above either working or looking for work rose to 52.09 million from 50.89 million in January 2026 and 51.09 million in February 2025.

Out of the 994,000 Filipinos added to the labor force in February, only 271,000 were absorbed into the labor market, while 724,000 remained jobless.

This brought the February unemployment rate to 5.1%, lower than the 5.8% in the previous month but higher than the 3.8% in February 2025.

“Maraming nag-participate year-on-year. Usually, ‘pag maraming nag-participate, again, depending sa labor market situation, may na-absorb as part of the employed persons, mayroon naman na hindi na-absorb, so nagiging unemployed sila,” National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa said in a briefing.

(More participated (in the labor force) year-on-year. Usually, when more people participate, again, depending on the labor market situation, some are absorbed as part of the employed persons, while others are not so they end up unemployed.)

For the first two months of the year, the average unemployed Filipinos increased to 2.8 million from 2.05 million in the comparable period of 2025, which Mapa said could be hit further given the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

“So first two months year-on-year comparison, hindi maganda, plus of course we have risks moving forward because of the crisis caused by ‘yung ating problems externally so definitely may mga impact,” Mapa said.

(Comparing the first two months year-on-year, it’s not looking good, plus of course we have risks moving forward because of external problems, so there will definitely be some impact.)

The PSA said the trend, should it continue, will likely be seen in the March data that is set to be released in May. The agency has also started to collect data for the April labor force survey.

In terms of employment, there were about 49.43 million Filipinos who had jobs in February to hit an employment rate of 94.9%, up from the 47.94 million (94.2%) in January, and slightly higher than the 49.16 million a year ago, though the rate was lower than last year’s 96.2%.

The top three major occupations that posted the biggest year-on-year increases were clerical support workers up 584,000; plant and machine operators and assembles up 579,000; and professionals up 444,000.

Compared with January, the biggest jumps were seen in skilled agricultural, forestry, and fishery workers (+496,000); service and sales workers (+455,000); elementary occupations (+340,000); professionals (+283,000); and plant and machine operators and assemblers (+223,000).

Out of the employed Filipinos, 5.84 million expressed the desire to either have additional hours of work, have an additional job, or have a new job with longer hours of work, bringing the underemployment rate to 11.8%.

This compares with the 6.35 million underemployed in January (13.2%), and the 4.96 million in February 2025 (10.1%). —AOL, GMA News