MANILA – The country’s unemployment rate in December 2025 remained unchanged at 4.4 percent from the previous month, but was higher than the 3.1 percent recorded in December 2024, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

The PSA said the number of unemployed Filipinos in December 2025 reached 2.26 million, slightly higher than the 2.25 million recorded in November 2025 and significantly higher than the 1.63 million unemployed individuals in December last year.

The labor force participation rate (LFPR) in December 2025 stood at 64.4 percent, lower than the 65.1 percent in December 2024 but higher than the 64.0 percent recorded in November 2025. This translates to 51.69 million Filipinos aged 15 years and over who were either employed or unemployed during the period.

Employment rate in December 2025 also remained unchanged from the previous month at 95.6 percent, but declined from the 96.9 percent recorded in December 2024. The total number of employed persons was estimated at 49.43 million, slightly higher than the 49.26 million in November 2025, but lower than the 50.19 million employed individuals in December last year.

By sector, the Services sector continued to account for the largest share of employment at 62.4 percent, followed by Agriculture at 20.7 percent and Industry at 16.9 percent. The top three sub-sectors with the highest employment shares were Wholesale and Retail Trade; Repair of Motor Vehicles and Motorcycles at 20.5 percent, Agriculture and Forestry at 18.8 percent, and Construction at 9.7 percent.

The PSA reported that the sub-sectors with the highest annual increase in employment in December 2025 were administrative and support service activities with an additional 385 thousand workers, accommodation and food service activities with 280 thousand, education with 241 thousand, public administration and defense; compulsory social security with 83 thousand, and electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply with 48 thousand.

In contrast, construction posted the largest annual decline in employment with a decrease of 550 thousand, followed by transportation and storage at 258 thousand, fishing and aquaculture at 258 thousand, manufacturing at 255 thousand, and agriculture and forestry at 167 thousand.

On a month-on-month basis, agriculture and forestry recorded the biggest increase in employment from November to December 2025 with an additional 572 thousand workers. This was followed by public administration and defense; compulsory social security with 211 thousand, accommodation and food service activities with 135 thousand, professional, scientific, and technical activities with 84 thousand, and administrative and support service activities with 68 thousand.

Meanwhile, manufacturing recorded the largest monthly drop with 424 thousand fewer employed persons, followed by fishing and aquaculture with 182 thousand, transportation and storage with 88 thousand, human health and social work activities with 71 thousand, and other service activities with 67 thousand.

In terms of class of worker, wage and salary workers made up the majority of employed persons at 64.2 percent, followed by self-employed workers without paid employees at 27.4 percent, unpaid family workers at 6.9 percent, and employers in own family-operated farm or business at 1.5 percent.

Among wage and salary workers, those employed in private establishments accounted for 77.7 percent, or nearly half of the total employed persons. Those working in government or government-controlled corporations comprised 15.2 percent of wage and salary workers.

The PSA also noted that the average weekly hours worked by employed persons increased to 41.2 hours in December 2025, higher than the 40.9 hours in December 2024 and 40.4 hours in November 2025. About 89 thousand employed persons, or 0.18 percent of total employment, worked for exactly one hour during the reference period.

Underemployment rate in December 2025 fell to 8.0 percent, lower than the 10.9 percent in December 2024 and 10.4 percent in November 2025. This translates to 3.93 million employed individuals who expressed a desire to have additional hours of work or another job. Of this number, 61.6 percent worked less than 40 hours a week, while 38.4 percent worked 40 hours or more.

For youth aged 15 to 24 years old, the labor force participation rate declined to 31.1 percent in December 2025 from 31.9 percent in December 2024 and 31.6 percent in November 2025. Youth employment rate also decreased to 87.8 percent from 90.9 percent in December last year and 88.3 percent in the previous month. Of the 5.49 million employed youth, about 448 thousand were underemployed, resulting in a youth underemployment rate of 8.2 percent.