Farmers and researchers said the Marcos Jr regime and its obsolete, pro-foreign policies are responsible for the large number of job losses, particularly in the manufacturing and agriculture sectors. The Philippine Statistics Authority latest data released on June 6 reported that half a million jobs in manufacturing and 600,000 in agriculture were lost in April 2025 compared to their numbers in April 2024.

According to IBON Foundation, although total employment slightly increased from 48.4 million in April 2024 to 48.7 million in April 2025, the number of unemployed also rose from 2 million to 2.1 million. Worse, the generated jobs are of low quality. Part-time jobs increased by almost one million, while full-time jobs fell by more than 800,000 during the same period.

“The manufacturing sector is critical for meaningful economic transformation and job creation but it experienced substantial job losses of half a million,” according to IBON. The most adversely affected industries are semiconductors and electronics, which lost 76,000 jobs; garments with 71,000, plastic products with 51,000; and food processing with 42,000. IBON says the job losses in semiconductors are an effect of worsening US protectionism and the Philippines’ weak position in global production.

IBON denounced the Marcos regime for its inadequate response. “Focusing only on the ‘employability’ of job seekers is a superficial response,” the group said. Relying solely on attracting foreign investors to create new jobs is also insufficient, it added.

“Genuine progress requires an explicit program of Filipino industrialization that strategically develops domestic high-technology manufacturing capacity and agriculture to create more, sustainable and quality jobs,” the group said.

Meanwhile, the peasant group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) condemned the Marcos regime for the unemployment increase in the agriculture sector from 1.93 million in March 2025 to 2.06 million in April 2025. KMP leader Danilo Ramos said the worsening of unemployment is “not just a matter of ‘skills mismatch’ but a direct result of a stagnant or non-developing agriculture and industry sector.”

Ramos emphasized the severity of unemployment in agriculture, where more than 609,000 jobs were lost. He said 483,000 of these are linked to rice production. “The lost jobs in rice farming are not just statistics. They are farming families who have lost their livelihoods due to high farming costs, importations, and other basic problems in agriculture,” he said. “These job losses in agriculture are proof that Marcos Jr.’s promises are nothing but empty slogans.”

The manufacturing sector in the Philippines has long been in a decline. Currently, its share in the economy is at its lowest in 76 years. IBON said that the downward trend has been worsened by 40 years of foreign capital dependent globalization, which tied the country to the production of low value-added goods. The agriculture sector continues to be battered by high production costs, competition from imports, and lack of government support.

“The government is completely out of touch from reality and indifferent to the real crisis faced by the masses,” Ramos said. KMP rejects the shallow and purely rhetorical policies of the Marcos regime. It demands that the regime address the roots of the decline in agriculture to restore livelihoods and create decent jobs.