April unemployment rate at 4%, up from 3.9% in March

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s unemployment rate in April rose to 4 percent fueled by more jobless Filipinos in the agricultural sector who were affected by the El NIño, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Thursday.

This translated to 2.04 million unemployed Filipinos.

Preliminary results of the statistics agency’s April round of the Labor Force Survey (LFS) showed the unemployment rate in April was the highest in three months. It was up from 3.9 percent in the previous month but lower than the 4.5 percent in April 2023 and January 2024.

The underemployment rate – the share of those already working but still looking for more work or longer working hours to the total employed population – likewise, increased to 14.6 percent in April from 11 percent in the preceding month.

This translated to 7.04 million Filipinos looking for an additional job or longer working hours.

Underemployment in April was the highest since the 15.9 percent in July 2023.

READ: Philippine unemployment rate rose to 3.9% in M

The labor force participation rate (LFPR) – the proportion of the total labor in the working-age population of 15 years old and over – slowed to 64.1 percent from 65.3 percent in the previous month.

Likewise, the employment rate eased to 96 percent in April, slightly lower than the 96.1 percent logged in March. There were 48.36 million employed Filipinos in April, higher than 48.06 million in April 2023.

The employment rate was also the lowest in three months.

By broad industry group, the services sector remained the top sector in terms of the number of employed persons with a share of 61.4 percent of the 48.36 million employed persons. The agriculture and industry sectors accounted for 20.3 percent and 18.3 percent of the employed persons, respectively.