THE number of Filipino children engaged in child labor inched up slightly in 2025 from a year earlier, according to preliminary data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
The PSA estimated that there were 513,650 child laborers nationwide last year, up from 509,160 in 2024. They accounted for 1.8 percent of all children aged 5 to 17, compared with 1.6 percent a year earlier.
Child labor refers to work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally harmful to children and interferes with their education by preventing them from attending school, forcing them to leave school early, or requiring them to combine schooling with long or heavy work.
Under the PSA’s definition, child labor includes hazardous work that could endanger a child’s health, safety, or moral well-being. It also covers children younger than 15 who work beyond legally permitted hours, as well as those aged 15 to 17 who exceed the maximum working hours or are employed during prohibited nighttime hours.
Agriculture continued to account for the largest share of child laborers in 2025, employing 336,000 children or 65.5 percent of the total, up from 328,000 a year earlier.
The industry sector also posted an increase to 45,000 child laborers from 34,000, while the number in services declined to 133,000 from 148,000.
Older children made up the bulk of child laborers, with 413,000 or 80.5 percent aged 15 to 17, while the remaining 100,000 were between 5 and 14 years old.
Boys accounted for nearly three-fourths of all child laborers at 373,650, compared with 140,000 girls.
Meanwhile, the number of working children-defined as all children aged 5 to 17 engaged in any economic activity, including both permissible work and child labor-inched up to 868,540 in 2025 from 861,450 a year earlier.
Nearly half of all working children were employed in the services sector, which accounted for 423,000 or 48.7 percent of the total.
Agriculture followed with 358,000 children or 41.2 percent, while 87,000 or 10.1 percent worked in industry.
Working children accounted for 3.1 percent of the country’s population aged 5 to 17 in 2025, up from 2.7 percent in 2024, indicating that about three in every 100 Filipino children were engaged in economic activity during the year.