THE number of members of the country’s workforce slightly declined in September 2025, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Thursday, November 6, 2025.
In a statement, the PSA said a total of 51.56 million Filipinos aged 15 and older were part of the labor force as of September 2025, lower than the 51.77 million recorded in the same month last year and the 52.13 million in August 2025.
The labor force represents 64.5 percent of the country’s total population.
Of the 51.56 million members of the workforce, 1.96 million or 3.8 percent were jobless, while 49.60 million or 96.2 percent were employed, the PSA said.
The unemployment rate was slightly lower than the 3.9 percent recorded in August 2025 but marginally higher than the 3.7 percent in September 2024.
The employment rate was also slightly higher than August’s 96.1 percent but lower compared to the 96.3 percent posted in the same month last year.
Among the employed, 11.1 percent expressed a desire to have additional hours of work in their current job, an additional job, or a new job with longer hours.
In September 2025, the services sector accounted for the largest share of total employment at 61.3 percent, followed by agriculture at 20.9 percent and industry at 17.8 percent.
The top five sub-sectors with the largest annual increases in employment in September 2025 were:
Construction
Fishing and aquaculture
Accommodation and food service activities
Human health and social work activities
Agriculture and forestry
In contrast, the following sub-sectors posted the highest annual decreases in employment:
Other service activities
Administrative and support service activities
Manufacturing
Transportation and storage
Public administration and defense; compulsory social security
(TPM/SunStar Philippines)