The Cordillera Administrative Region recorded the highest employment rate in the Philippines in 2025 at 97.3 percent, outperforming the national average of 95.8 percent despite facing a shrinking local labor pool, state statisticians announced Thursday.
Chief Statistical Specialist Aldrin Federico Bahit Jr. of the Philippine Statistics Authority – CAR said while the region led the country in job retention, its active labor force went down from 842,000 individuals in 2024 to 832,000 in 2025 droving the regional labor force participation rate down to 63.8 percent, placing the region slightly below the national participation average of 64.1 percent.
Bahit noted that while the region has topped the employment rate nationwide, local officials must look closer at the underlying shifts within the provinces, adding that the reduction in the total labor force highlights a critical transition period for the local workforce.
The region also saw positive momentum in job quality, as the underemployment rate decreased from 12.9 percent in 2024 to 11.7 percent in 2025 which represents a reduction of approximately 11,000 individuals, dropping the number of underemployed workers from 106,000 down to 95,000.
Of those remaining underemployed in 2025, 62 percent were visibly underemployed, meaning they worked fewer than 40 hours a week and desired more hours, while 37.9 percent were invisibly underemployed, working full-time hours but still seeking additional work.
Economic sectors showed varied performance, with services maintaining the largest regional employment share at 46.3 percent, followed by agriculture at 38 percent and industry at 15.8 percent. Strong job gains were reported in agricultural subsectors, specifically the cultivation of leafy and fruit-bearing vegetables, alongside expansions in primary education and financial services, while wholesale and retail trade suffered the sharpest job contractions.
Geographic performance within the region revealed stark contrasts, led by Mountain Province, which recorded the highest labor participation rate at 73.8 percent, the highest employment rate at 98.5 percent, and the lowest unemployment rate at 1.5 percent. However, Mountain Province also recorded the highest underemployment rate at 24.5 percent.
In contrast, Baguio City experienced the heaviest urban pressures, registering the lowest labor participation at 55.2 percent, the lowest employment rate at 95.8 percent, and the highest unemployment rate at 4.2 percent. Benguet posted the lowest underemployment rate in the region at 5.6 percent, followed closely by Baguio City at 6.9 percent and Abra at 7.6 percent. Abra also bucked the broader regional trend as the only province to register a net decrease in unemployment.
The demographic data highlighted persistent gaps, showing that male labor force participation and employment consistently outpaced female counterparts
Youth underemployment rate also saw a slight uptick, rising from 12.2 percent in 2024 to 12.3 percent in 2025, with the total number of underemployed youth holding steady at 9,000 individuals. Additionally, the labor force participation rate for Cordillerans aged 15 to 24 declined to 22.5 percent in 2025 from 24.7 percent the previous year, leaving about 77,000 youth actively participating in the workforce. With a report from John Larry ‘Lala Dy” Agtarap/UC Intern
