THE number of jobless Filipinos declined further in December last year — concluding 2024 with fewer unemployed individuals — amid the seasonal increase in demand for labor during the holidays, according to results of the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) Labor Force Survey.
At a press conference yesterday, PSA chief National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa reported that jobless persons, ages 15 and above, eased to 1.63 million from 1.66 million in November 2024.
As a percentage of 51.81 million Filipinos in the labor force, who are actively looking for jobs and livelihoods during the period, the number of jobless persons translated to an unemployment rate of 3.1%, down from 3.2% month-on-month.
For the whole 2024, the estimated number of unemployed persons stood at 1.94 million, down from 2.19 million in 2023 with an unemployment rate of 3.8% versus 4.4% year-on-year.
This was the lowest unemployment rate since 2005, according to the PSA chief.
Meanwhile, employed persons grew to 50.19 million in December 2024 from 49.54 million in November 2024.
As a percentage of those in the labor force, the employment rate was estimated at 96.9%, up from 96.8% month-on-month.
For the entire 2024, the number of employed Filipinos was estimated at 48.85 million, up from 48.18 million in 2023 with an employment rate of 96.2% compared to 95.6% year-on-year.
Mapa attributed the favorable labor figures to the seasonal increase in demand for workers related to the holidays in the last month of 2024.
The services sector continued to dominate in terms of the number of employed persons with a share of 60.5% to the total number.
The agriculture and industry sectors followed accounting for 21.3% and 18.3% of the total number of employed persons, respectively.
The top five sub-sectors with the largest month-on-month increase in the number of employed during December 2024 were the following: agriculture and forestry – 735,000; construction – 583,000; public administration and defense; compulsory social security – 307,000; transportation and storage – 184,000; and financial and insurance activities – 96,000.
Meanwhile, the number of underemployed persons, those who expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or to have an additional job, or to have a new job with longer hours of work, stood at 5.48 million of the 50.19 million employed individuals during the period.
For the whole 2024, underemployed individuals were estimated at 5.8 million versus 5.9 million in 2023. (GMA Integrated News)
