DILIMAN, Quezon City — Although less Filipinos were jobless in February as labor market conditions improved, socioeconomic planning secretary Arsenio Balisacan cautioned that the conflict in the Middle East will “continue to affect global and domestic economic conditions and disrupt labor markets.”
In a statement, Balisacan cited that “recent developments highlight the urgency to strengthen the resilience of (the country's) labor market even he advised that the government's policies and programs should respond effectively to rapidly changing global conditions, especially for affected and displaced Filipino workers here and abroad.
Given this, he disclosed that the government was working hard to strengthen investments in renewable energy and electric vehicle ecosystems to support long-term resilience and workforce readiness amid the global energy crisis.
“We expect an accelerated transition towards other sources of fuel and energy, Thus, we are building the skills, investment and innovation ecosystem to support this move,” he noted.
In addition, Balisacan announced that the government will be providing displaced workers with skills training programs on the operations and maintenance of renewable energy facilities and electric vehicles, including the replacement of needed parts and components.”
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) head was reacting to concerns on the possible increase in the number of the unemployed and underemployed resulting from higher costs of overhead expenditures of businesses in the country.
However, based on data from the PSA, unemployment had eased to 5.1 percent from January’s 5.8 percent. Still, this was higher than the 3.8 percent recorded in the previous year. This translates to 2.66 million unemployed Filipinos, lower than the 2.96 million recorded in January 2026 but up from February 2025’s 1.94 million.
Meanwhile, underemployment—which counts as those looking for more work or an extra job—fell to 11.8 percent from 13.2 percent a month earlier but was higher than the 10.1 percent in February last year. The number of underemployed individuals stood at 5.84 million.