The unemployment rate in the Philippines stood at 5.4 percent in the September quarter 2019, the same pace as in the corresponding period the prior year. The number of unemployed persons edged down by 0.1 thousand to 2.43 million, while the number of employed grew by 2.3 thousand to 42.95 million. Meanwhile, the labor force participation rate increased to 62.1 percent from 60.1 percent a year ago. Among employed persons, workers in the services sector made up 57.8 percent of the total, followed by those in the agriculture sector (23.5 percent) and industry (18.7 percent). Unemployment Rate in Philippines averaged 8.28 percent from 1994 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 13.90 percent in the first quarter of 2000 and a record low of 4.70 percent in the fourth quarter of 2016.
Unemployment Rate in Philippines is expected to be 5.30 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Unemployment Rate in Philippines to stand at 5.20 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Philippines Unemployment Rate is projected to trend around 4.20 percent in 2020, according to our econometric models.