The unemployment rate in the Philippines inched lower to 5.2 percent in the March quarter of 2019 from 5.3 percent a year ago. The number of unemployed persons fell by 118 thousand to 2.20 million and the number of employed dropped 387 thousand to 41.37 million. Meanwhile, the labor force participation rate declined to 60.2 percent from 62.2 percent. Among employed persons, workers in the services sector made up 58.1 percent of the total, followed by those in the agriculture sector (22.1 percent) and industry (19.7 percent). Unemployment Rate in Philippines averaged 8.34 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 5.00 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 5.40 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.