00:00The Philippine Statistics Authority reports the unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.8%
00:05in May 2026. This is equivalent to 2.5 million unemployed Filipinos. The latest rate is higher
00:12than the 2.41 million recorded in April 2026 and the 2.03 million posted in May 2025. The May
00:20figure
00:20was nearly one percentage point higher than the 3.9% unemployment rate recorded in the same month
00:26last year. Asked whether the increase in unemployed Filipinos could be attributed to the Middle East
00:31fuel crisis, national statistician Dennis Mapa points instead to the large year-on-year drop
00:36in agriculture and forestry jobs. Agriculture and forestry shed 905,000 jobs year-on-year,
00:42the biggest net loss among industries. Much of this came from the growing of Palay which lost 734,000
00:48jobs and the growing of corn which lost 428,000 jobs. Mapa notes it may be the impact of weather
00:55weather conditions in May.
Comments