This study examines how the 2008-2009 surges in international food and fuel prices and
coinciding global financial crisis impacted the Philippine labor market, with a focus on
gendered outcomes. A battery of descriptive statistics and probit regressions based on
repeated cross sections of the Philippine Labor Force Survey indicate that both men and
women experienced declines in the likelihood of employment, especially in 2008 and in
manufacturing. While men’s job losses were limited to wage employment, women lost job
opportunities in wage- and self-employment, and they experienced increases in unpaid family
work. Real wages fell for men and women, with much of the decline at the upper tails of the
wage distribution. If one considers education as a proxy for skill, results suggest that
unskilled workers were affected most adversely when the crisis began, especially in terms of
employment losses, but as the crisis conditions wore on, skilled workers experienced
negative impacts as well, especially in terms of real wage cuts.