The Philippines’ unemployment rate rose to 4.8% in May 2026 as severe weather cut jobs in farming, the Philippine Statistics Authority said Wednesday.
An estimated 2.50 million Filipinos were unemployed in May, up from 2.41 million in April and 2.03 million a year earlier. Total employment stood at 49.63 million, down from 50.29 million in May 2025.
National Statistician Claire Dennis S. Mapa pointed to El Niño-related weather disruptions as the primary cause of job losses in agriculture and forestry. The sector shed about 905,000 workers compared with May 2025, with palay and corn farmers among the hardest hit.
“The weather conditions in May 2026 likely contributed to the sharp decline in farm employment,” Mapa said.
Despite the higher unemployment rate, underemployment eased to 12.2% in May from 15.2% the month before. Still, 6.04 million employed Filipinos said they wanted additional working hours; more than half of those underemployed were working fewer than 40 hours a week.
Labor force participation fell to 63.8% in May, down from 65.8% a year earlier, indicating fewer people were actively looking for work. For the first five months of 2026, the average unemployment rate was 5.1%, higher than the 4.0% seen in the same period last year, equivalent to an average of 2.62 million jobless Filipinos.
Economists say the figures show a mixed picture. While nearly 50 million people remain employed, the large, weather-driven losses in agriculture expose long-standing vulnerabilities in the labor market, particularly for rural communities that depend on farming.
Local officials and farmers’ groups have urged more targeted relief and support measures, including crop rehabilitation, farm input subsidies, and insurance payouts to help households recover. Analysts also say longer-term steps such as investing in climate-resilient agriculture and diversifying rural livelihoods will be crucial to reducing future employment shocks.
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