More Filipinos jobless in October 2025, says PSA

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December 10, 2025 | 11:22am

MANILA, Philippines — The number of jobless Filipinos grew in October, with at least 2.54 million people unemployed that month, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Wednesday, December 10.

This is an increase compared to September 2025, which recorded 1.96 million unemployed Filipinos. In percentages, the unemployment rate rose to 5% in October 2025 from 3.8% in the previous month.

Meanwhile, the employment rate stood at 95% in October 2025, slightly lower compared to the previous month’s 96.2%. This translates to 48.62 million people being employed, compared to 49.60 million in September.

Meanwhile, the underemployment rate decreased to 11.1% from 12.0% in October 2025. This means that fewer Filipinos have expressed the need for more work hours or secondary jobs.

Filipinos worked an average of 41.4 hours a week, the PSA found.

By sector and class

The PSA said that 60.6% of employed persons were in the services sector, followed by the agriculture sector at 21.3% and industry at 17.9%.

In terms of subsector, the following had the highest employment rates: Wholesale and Retail Trade; Repair of Motor Vehicles and Motorcycles (20.0%), Agriculture and Forestry (19.0%), and Construction (9.7%).

Meanwhile, the following sectors had the highest annual increases of employees:

• Public administration and defense; compulsory social security: Up by 257,000
• Accommodation and food service activities: Up by 180,000
• Agriculture and forestry: Up by 168,000
• Manufacturing: Up by 152,000
• Fishing and aquaculture: Up by 88,000

However, several subsectors also saw a decline in employees, including:

• Other service activities: Down by 520,000
• Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles: Down by 66,000
• Professional, scientific and technical activities: Down by 47,000
• Mining and quarrying: Down by 33,000
• Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities: Down by 21,000

In terms of the class of worker, most people are wage and salary workers, comprising 64.2% of the employment pool. Meanwhile, self-employed persons without any employees make up 27.5%, unpaid family workers are at 6.3% and employers in family-run businesses are at 2.0%.