The Philippines' unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.1% in April 2025 from 4% a year earlier, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Friday.

The number of unemployed reached 2.06 million in April, up from 2.04 million in April 2024 but down from 2.16 million in January 2025. The employment rate fell marginally to 95.9% from 96.0% in April 2024.

The labor force participation rate slipped to 63.7% in April from 64.1% in the previous year, with 50.74 million Filipinos aged 15 and above classified as either employed or unemployed.

Total employed persons rose to 48.67 million, up from 48.35 million in April 2024. Average weekly working hours dropped to 39.9 hours from 40.5 hours a year earlier.

Underemployment remained steady at 14.6% year-on-year, with about 7.1 million workers seeking additional hours or jobs.

By sector, services accounted for 61.9% of employment, followed by agriculture at 20.6% and industry at 17.5%.

Despite this uptick in unemployment, the Philippine economy demonstrated resilience with a 5.4% year-on-year GDP growth in the first quarter of 2025.

The services sector led this expansion, contributing 3.9 percentage points to the overall growth, followed by industry and agriculture.

Notably, sectors such as wholesale and retail trade, financial and insurance activities, and manufacturing experienced significant growth during this period