The March 2025 labor force survey (LFS) results showing a large 1.1 million decrease in employment and similarly large 1.0 million increase in underemployment underscore the Philippine economy’s continuing inability to create decent paying work, research group IBON said. These problems persist as the Marcos government continues to ignore the fundamental causes of the jobs crisis and sticks to dismissing it as a mere skills mismatch problem, said the group.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the labor force decreased by 1.2 million from 51.2 million in March 2024 to 49.96 million in March 2025, which the government attributes to schooling and household activities. The figures are year-on-year though and there is no reason to expect more schooling and household activities this year compared to the same period last year. It is much more likely that the labor force decreased because so many Filipinos could not find work despite their best efforts and just stopped looking for work, becoming discouraged job seekers.
The number of employed persons also decreased substantially by 1.1 million from 49.2 million in March 2024 to 48 million in March 2025. It is very unlikely that Filipinos stopped needing work so this strongly indicates poor job prospects in the labor market.
IBON said the weak job creation is from worsening problems in the agriculture and industrial sectors which are vital sources of sustainable jobs. The share of agriculture in gross domestic product (GDP) fell to 8% in 2024 which is its smallest in the country’s history, and of manufacturing to 17.6% which is its smallest share in over seven decades. These sectors had among the biggest job losses – agriculture and forestry jobs fell by 610,000 from 9.1 million to 8.5 million, and manufacturing by 281,000 from 4.0 million to 3.7 million.
The latest LFS also shows decreasing quality of work even by conventional indicators. Wage and salaried workers decreased by 1.1 million from 31.6 million to 30.4 million; 848,000 of the jobs lost was in private establishments. Visibly informal work meanwhile remains widespread at 19.8 million in March 2025, hardly changed from 19.8 million in the same period last year.
IBON added that the rise in underemployment reflects the unresolved jobs crisis where existing jobs pay poorly. The one-million increase in underemployment from 5.4 million to 6.4 million was mainly in construction (186,000 increase), wholesale and retail trade (130,000), public administration and defense (123,000), other service activities (122,000), and administrative and support service activities (114,000). The rise in underemployment was largely driven by the invisibly underemployed, or those working 40 hours or more but still seeking additional work or additional pay.
The reported lower unemployment figures hides the true extent of joblessness, said IBON. The number of officially reported unemployed fell by 69,000 from 2 million to 1.9 million. However, the 3.2 million unpaid family workers who worked without pay in their own family-operated farm or business should also be considered unemployed. It is also very likely that a large part of the 2.4 million increase in those considered “not in the labor force” which bloated to 29.5 million are discouraged workers who just stopped looking for work that is nowhere to be found.
IBON said that reducing the labor market problem to a simple jobs-skills mismatch is convenient for the Marcos Jr government but akin to victim-blaming. The real cause of joblessness is the government’s non-transformative development plan that avoids national industrialization and agricultural development which are the real drivers of job creation.
