DEPDev, Australian gov't to expand women's access to quality jobs

MANILA – The Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev), in partnership with the Australian government’s Investing in Women (IW) initiative, launched on Tuesday a program to expand Filipino women’s access to quality jobs.

The "Juana Trabaho" is a strategic framework and action plan which aim to increase women’s participation in the workforce.

The initiative seeks to operationalize key employment strategies specifically for women and other vulnerable groups and also supports expanding the adoption of alternative and flexible work arrangements to encourage greater labor force participation of women and other vulnerable groups.

In a statement, DEPDev said the initiative is part of the Philippine government’s move to close persistent gaps in the labor market for female workers.

The Juana Trabaho initiative will develop a strategic framework that contextualizes quality jobs for women in the Philippines throughout women's life stages.

This will be followed by a participatory action planning process with stakeholders to identify concrete policies and programs for implementing solutions to increase female labor force participation.

According to DEPDev, women’s participation in the workforce remains significantly lower than men’s because of barriers such as unpaid care and domestic responsibilities, limited access to flexible work arrangements and uneven job quality.

The Labor Force Survey (LFS) showed that the full-year women’s labor force participation rate decreased to 53.7 percent in 2025 from 54.7 percent in 2024.

“This reality underscores why increasing women’s labor force participation is a clear priority of the Philippine government. Under the TPB (Trabaho Para sa Bayan) Plan, we aim to raise female labor force participation to 59 percent by 2034. Achieving this requires not only creating quality, secure, and accessible jobs for women but also ensuring that these jobs align with emerging industry demands brought about by a modernizing economy,” DEPDev Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said.

Increasing women’s labor force participation is vital to the Philippines’ equitable growth and is a main priority of the Australia–Philippines Development Partnership Plan (2024–2029).

“Unlocking women’s full economic potential is critical for sustainable and inclusive economic growth in the Philippines. Australia is proud to work closely with the Philippine government to promote policy reforms that advance gender-inclusive workplaces, a care economy that supports women, and ensure women’s full economic participation. We welcome the combined efforts of government, business, and civil society to drive inclusive economic growth in the Philippines, powered by more quality jobs for women,” Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Marc Innes-Brown said.

The Juana Trabaho initiative builds on earlier collaboration between DEPDev and IW regarding research on gender-inclusive part-time work policies and inclusive flexible working arrangements in the Philippine private sector. (PNA)