Research group IBON said that newly released labor force figures expose the hollowness of the Marcos Jr administration’s celebration of the country’s upper middle-income (UMIC) status. The group said that the supposed “economic milestone” masks a deepening jobs crisis driven by decades of government’s market-oriented policies that have failed to create sufficient decent work.
Year-on-year data for May 2026 show a 464,000 increase in the number of unemployed Filipinos, from 2.03 million in May 2025 to 2.5 million this year. At the same time, the number of employed persons fell by 663,000 from 50.3 million to 49.6 million. The situation is even more concerning when considering the 2.4-million increase to 29.6 million of those not in the labor force (NILF). IBON said that official figures conceal the real extent of joblessness by discounting millions of discouraged workers—Filipinos who have stopped looking for work due to poor job prospects—and instead classifying them as NILF.
The group added that the slight decline in underemployment is insignificant, especially since a large number of Filipinos are making do with poor quality or informal work. IBON estimates that there are 19.8 million outright informal workers or 40% of total employed as of May 2026. This includes the self-employed, domestic help, and those in family-owned farms and businesses. When counting those in informal private establishments, the number rises to 36.6 million, or 74% of total employment.
Widespread job losses in various sectors, particularly those notorious for temporary and insecure work, underscore the troubled labor market. Employment fell sharply in agriculture and forestry (by 905,000); other services, mainly domestic work (by 442,000); public administration and defense (by 213,000); and wholesale and retail trade (by 141,000)—a total of 1.7 million jobs lost in these four sectors alone.
The group pointed out that the nearly 1-million drop in agriculture and forestry employment cannot be explained by weather disturbances alone, such as the developing El Niño. Rather, it reflects the government’s continuing failure to strengthen the sector. The increase in the Department of Agriculture (DA) budget for climate change expenditures from Php48.7 billion in 2025 to Php58.9 billion this year is moderate in comparison to the anticipation of the “worst El Niño ever”. Despite the slight increase, massive jobs losses persisted, especially in rice and corn farming.
IBON emphasized that the country’s UMIC status is irrelevant when considering that millions of Filipinos are struggling to make a living or find decent employment. Rather than clinging to an exhausted economic model that favors big business and foreign interests, the country needs an economic strategy that tackles structural vulnerabilities and advances real development. Strengthening domestic agriculture and Filipino industry is key to creating stable, decent jobs for Filipinos.
