The unemployment rate in the Philippines rose to 5.1 percent in the last quarter of 2018 from 5.0 percent in the same period a year earlier. The number of unemployed persons went up by 17 thousand to 2.20 million while the number of employed dropped by 218 thousand to 41.33 million. Meanwhile, the labor force participation rate declined to 60.6 percent from 62.1 percent. Among employed persons, workers in the services sector made up 56.8 percent of the total employed, followed by those in the agriculture sector (24.1 percent) and industry (19.1 percent). Unemployment Rate in Philippines averaged 8.38 percent from 1994 until 2018, 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 5.20 percent in 2020, according to our econometric models.