The Philippine employment rate has continued to climb up in March 2023, according to the latest Labor Force Survey (LFS) conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). The survey showed that the employment rate for March 2023 stood at 95.3 percent, a significant increase from 94.2 percent in March 2022 and 95.2 percent in February 2023.
Based on the survey, the number of employed Filipinos for March 2023 increased by 1.61 million to 48.58 million, compared to the 46.98 million employed persons in the same period last year. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate for March 2023 decreased to 4.7 percent, from 5.8 percent in March 2022 and 4.8 percent in February 2023. This means that out of the 51.00 million Filipinos in the labor force in March 2023, only 2.42 million were unemployed.
The PSA also reported that the Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) for March 2023 was 66.0 percent, higher than the 65.4 percent in March last year but lower than the 66.6 percent in February 2023. Moreover, the underemployment rate in March 2023 went down to 11.2 percent, the lowest unemployment rate reported since April 2005.
The services sector remained the top employment hub, contributing 59.0 percent of the total employed population in March 2023, while the agriculture and industry sectors accounted for 23.5 percent and 17.5 percent, respectively. The year-on-year increase in employment was primarily driven by services and industry sectors.
Wage and salary workers remained the largest group of employed persons, comprising 61.6 percent of the total employed population. Private establishments employed 47.5 percent of the total employed, followed by government or government-controlled corporations with 9.2 percent share.
Youth unemployment rate decreased by -1.1 percentage points, from 11.3 percent in March last year to 10.2 percent in March 2023, while the number of underemployed youth was reported at 612 thousand out of the 6.40 million employed youth.