The Commission on Higher Education has observed a “troubling increase” in the number of Filipino college graduates who remain unemployed, citing a June 2025 Labor Force Survey by the Department of Labor and Employment that showed a 2.6 percentage point increase in the number of unemployed college graduates from the 35.6 percent in December 2024.
“This troubling increase reveals that our most educated citizens – those who have invested significant time and resources into higher education – are encountering growing difficulties in finding employment,” CHED Chairperson Shirley Agrupis said during a recent INNOTECH Seminar Series on Education, Innovation, and Technology.
She noted that the problem goes beyond unemployment numbers, as there is a persistent mismatch between available jobs and graduates’ skills.
Agrupis cited the DOLE nationwide job fairs held in January 2025 where only 3,364 out of 25,876 job seekers were hired and the majority were placed in low-skilled roles that do not require a college degree.
“While the Philippine Statistics Authority reports that overall unemployment eased to 3.7 percent in June 2025, and underemployment remains relatively low, these averages mask deeper structural issues. Graduates are struggling to secure jobs aligned with their qualifications, while industries face shortages of the skilled workers they need,” she said.
She also noted that in the region, neighboring countries have not only achieved lower unemployment rates, but also stronger alignment between workforce skills and job requirements.
She said that the challenge ahead is clear that the country must sustain the progress while ensuring that the jobs available match the skills of the graduates. We need to focus not just on jobs filled, but also on providing meaningful and productive work.
When college graduates, who are supposed to be the most educated in the country, have problems finding a job that suits their skills, passion, and training, a country wastes so much resources in terms of time, talent, and funds spent for education that fails to achieve the desired results for everyone involved. That mismatch has to be addressed by a government that properly uses the data it has gathered so it can benefit more, before an entire generation of potential employees and employers end up wasting even more time and resources.*
