Manila, Philippines — During the past two months, the rate of inflation in the basic goods largely spiked at 4.1% in March and 7.2% in April.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) attributed the faster inflation to the faster increment in food prices, transportation and petroleum—impacted by the Middle East crisis.
Amid the increase in prices of goods, PSA likewise noted an increase in the number of employed persons in March.
Based on the March 2026 Labor Force Survey, the employment rate is recorded at 95%, slightly higher than the 94.9% in February.
This is equivalent to 49.07 million Filipinos employed in jobs or have businesses.
The highest employment is recorded in the services sector—which is 63% of the total employed persons in March. This was followed by the Agriculture and Industry sector.
Despite the higher employment, the underemployment rate also posed an increase during the third month of the year.
Underemployed persons refer to employed individuals who want to have additional work hours or another job.
The underemployment rate is placed at 12.3% from the previous month’s 11.8%, which is equivalent to 6.03 million underemployed persons.
Consequently, the unemployment rate declined by one point to 5.0% in March.
This is equivalent to 2.58 million persons without jobs or business in March.—Mia Layaguin, Eurotv News