Philippine unemployment rises to 4.7% in April 2026, 2.41 million jobless —PSA

More Filipinos were unemployed in April 2026 as employment declined, with a growing number of workers seeking better job opportunities, data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Tuesday showed.

There were 2.41 million Filipinos of working age without jobs in April 2026, translating to an unemployment rate of 4.7%. This compares with 2.06 million unemployed Filipinos a year ago, when the unemployment rate was 4.1%.

This is also the highest April unemployment rate since 2022 when 5.7% of the labor force was jobless.

This means that 47 in 1,000 individuals in the labor force did not have jobs or livelihoods during the month. There were some 240,000 new entrants into the labor force, the majority of whom were from the 15- to 24-year age group.

Some 48.89 million were employed during the month, bringing the employment rate to 95.3%, lower than the 95.9% a year ago, despite the number of employed Filipinos increasing from 48.67 million.

According to national statistician Claire Dennis Mapa, this can be partly attributed to the Middle East conflict, as employment in retail trade declined by 450,000.

“Karamihan na may bawas nasa retail trade, so pwedeng impact ito ng presyo, income (Most of the decrease is in retail trade so this can be an impact of the prices and income),” he said in a virtual briefing.

Employment was also hit by the onset of the dry season, as evidenced by the decline in the agriculture sector, following the declaration of the warm, dry season on March 23, 2026.

“‘Pag bumababa ‘yung volume, nagkaka-effect sa labor market (If the production volume declines, this has an effect on the labor market). We will monitor this if this will continue in the coming months,” Mapa said.

Increases were seen in accommodation and food service activities, manufacturing, transportation and storage, and education.

Among those employed, 7.41 million wanted additional hours, an extra job, or a new job with longer working hours, equivalent to an underemployment rate of 15.2%.

This is higher than the 7.09 million underemployed Filipinos recorded in April 2025, when the underemployment rate was 14.6%, and the highest underemployment rate since 15.9% was recorded in July 2023.

The biggest jump was seen in the transportation and storage sector — in particular, land passenger transport such as jeepney, taxi, and motorcycle taxi drivers — where the number of underemployed workers rose to 7.41 million from 7.09 million.

There were also more unemployed workers in the manufacturing of bamboo cane or rattan; accommodation and food service activities, and other service activities, which include domestic services, personal services for wellness, and the repair of households and appliances.

The April labor force survey (LFS) took into account responses from 45,076 sample households or 125,644 individuals.

The labor force, or those of working age 15 years and above, was estimated to be at 51.30 million, equivalent to a labor force participation rate of 62.7%. This is lower than the 63.7% a year ago, when there were 50.74 million in the labor force. —AOL, GMA News