National Statistician and Civil Registrar General Undersecretary Claire Dennis Mapa said the Philippine unemployment rate declined in March 2026 to 5.0 percent from 5.1 percent in February. This translates to 2.58 million jobless Filipinos.

Mapa said the fuel price shocks affected certain sectors only so far, but there is no complete data yet if all industries were impacted by the war in terms of the labor market.

He added that the fuel price hikes may have affected the fishing and aquaculture sub-sector in March. On a month-on-month comparison, that sector lost 420,000 jobs.

“Ito yung mga mangingisda natin nasa municipal fisherfolks. So sila yung gumagamit ng diesel din, so may kasi kanila kasi nabawasan,” he said.

“Nilabas rin namin yung value production and agricultural fisheries, at nakita natin itong fisheries production ay bumaba sa first quarter 2026 vs. 2025,” he added.

Nearly 300,000 jobs were also cut in the ‘other service activities’ sub-sector. Mapa said most of this figure or around 250,000 are domestic helpers. He noted this can also indicate that households are on a budget mode because of fuel price hikes.

“Yung mga households natin pwede nagtitipid kaya they let go of some domestic helpers,” he said.

On the other hand, jobs also increased month-on-month in the following sectors:

 -Agriculture and forestry (486,000)

-Construction (184,000)

-Education (142,000)

Year-on-year, over half a million jobs were added in the transportation and storage sub-sector despite oil price shocks. Mapa explained this sub-sector includes delivery-related jobs and warehouse and storage work.

There were also more jobs in the administrative and support services (458,000) industries. Mapa noted that there were more jobs in call centers, and both voice and non-voice services in business process outsourcing (BPO) companies.

Mapa said the April data, which will be released next month, can provide more information if the oil price hikes significantly affected the labor sector.

The Department of Economy, Planning, and Development said the year to date unemployment rate now stands at 5.3 percent, which is above the target range of 4 to 5 percent.

DEPDev Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the government will pursue measures to preserve jobs and provide social protection, job-skills matching, especially for those displaced by the Middle East conflict.