Jobless Rate Spikes to 3-Year High in July

The unemployment rate in July climbed to its highest level in almost three years due to the series of typhoons that hit the country.

- By Louella Desiderio

In a press conference yesterday, National Statistician Dennis Mapa said preliminary results of the Labor Force Survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that the unemployment rate rose to 5.3 percent in July from 3.7 percent in June and 4.7 percent in the same month last year.

Mapa said the July unemployment rate is the highest since it hit the same level in August 2022.

There were 2.59 million jobless Filipinos in July, up from the previous month's 1.95 million and 2.38 million in July 2024.

The employment rate dropped to 94.7 percent in July from 96.3 percent in the previous month and 95.3 percent in the same month last year.