Starting April 2005, the new unemployment definition was adopted in the Labor Force Survey per National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) Resolution Number 15 dated October 20, 2004. The new definition is presented in the Technical Notes of this report.

For comparative purposes, the January 2007 results are presented in textual tables alongside the final estimates for the January 2006 survey round.

Labor force participation rate is 64.8 percent

1. The number of persons in the labor force, or those who are either employed or unemployed was estimated at 36.4 million in January 2007.

2. The resulting labor force participation rate (LFPR) or the proportion of the labor force to the working age population was 64.8 percent.

3. Ten of the 17 regions registered LFPRs higher than the national rate. The LFPR was highest in Mimaropa at 70.0 percent and lowest in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) at 58.8 percent (Table 1).

Employment increases by 4.7 percent

4. The national employment rate was recorded at 92.2 percent in this period. There was an increase of 4.7 percent, from 32.0 million employed persons last year to 33.5 million this year.

5. Across regions, Cagayan Valley recorded the highest employment rate at 96.9 percent while the National Capital Region (NCR) had the lowest at 87.3 percent (Table 2).

   

   Employed males outnumber employed females

6. Male population dominated the employed workforce. There were 20.3 million employed males as against 13.2 million employed females.

7. By age group, the largest number of employed persons was in age group 25 to 34 years, representing 26.5 percent of the total employed.

8. The 35 to 44 year age group comprised the second largest with a share of 23.5 percent, followed by the 15 to 24 year age group with a share of 19.8 percent.

   

   Services sector comprises half of the total employed

9. Of the 33.5 million employed persons in January 2007, 16.9 million (50.5%) were employed in the services sector, 11.6 million (34.7%) in agriculture, and the rest (5.0 million or 14.8%) were in the industry sector.

   

10. The largest number of persons employed in the services sector were those engaged in wholesale and retail trade and repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles, and personal and household goods at 6.4 million. Another 3.0 million were employed in manufacturing for the industry sector.

11. In the agriculture sector, majority of the total employed was in the agriculture, hunting, and forestry subsector with 10.2 million persons (Table 4).

    Laborers and unskilled workers register the largest share of employment

12. Laborers and unskilled workers maintained the biggest share among the occupation groups, accounting for 32.3 percent of the total employed. The group recorded an increase of 783 thousand employed persons, from 10.1 million in January 2006 to 10.8 million in January 2007.

13. Farmers, forestry workers, and fishermen registered the next largest group of workers with 17.6 percent or 5.9 million in January 2007 (Table 5).

    

    Wage and salary workers dominate the employed workforce

14. Wage and salary workers numbered 17.9 million, accounting for 53.4 percent of the total workforce. Of this total, about 73.8 percent worked in private establishments, 14.5 percent in the government or government corporations, 10.7 percent in private households, and the rest in family-owned businesses.

    

15. About 11.8 million or 35.1 percent of the total employed were own-account workers while 3.9 million or 11.5 percent were unpaid family workers.

    Nearly two thirds of employed persons work full time

16. Full time workers or those who worked for 40 hours or more reached 21.1 million or 62.8 percent of the total employed. On the other hand, 12.0 million or 35.9 percent worked for less than 40 hours in January 2007

    One in every five employed persons desire more hours of work

17. The number of underemployed persons or those who desired additional hours of work was estimated at 7.2 million in January 2007. This represented 21.5 percent of the total employed.

18. The number of underemployed persons increased by 440 thousand (6.5%) from 6.8 million last year.

19. About 2.9 million of the total underemployed persons were full-time workers while 4.2 million were part-time workers.

    

20. Of the 7.2 million underemployed, 45.8 percent were in the agriculture sector, followed by those in the services sector with 39.2 percent. Almost three fourths of the underemployed agricultural workers were part-time workers (72.3%).

    Unemployment is 7.8 percent in January 2007

21. The unemployed persons reached 2.8 million in January 2007, resulting to an unemployment rate of 7.8 (Table 1).

22. Among regions, NCR posted the highest unemployment rate of 12.7 percent. Other regions with higher unemployment rates than the national figure were Calabarzon (10.4%), and Central Luzon and Ilocos Region with 9.7 percent each.

    

23. Six in every ten unemployed persons were males. Almost half of the total unemployed persons belonged to age group 15 to 24 years (48.8%), 28.3 percent were 25 to 34 years, and 11.2 percent were 35 to 44 years. The remaining 11.7 percent were 45 years old and over.

24. With regards to educational attainment, approximately one-third of the unemployed had completed high school education (939 thousand or 32.9%) while 463 thousand (16.2%) had actually completed college education.

    One-third of the population not in the labor force are 15-24 years old

    

25. A little over one-third (35.2%) of the population 15 years old and over in January 2007 were not in the labor force, such as housewives, persons with disability, students, and retired persons. Females dominated those who were not in the labor force (70.3%).

26. Majority of persons (9.1 million or 46.3%) who were not in the labor force belonged to the younger age group 15 to 24 years old and 3.4 million or 17.0 percent were 25 to 34 years old. Persons in the age group 65 years old and over comprised 2.2 million or 11.2 percent.

    SUMMARY

    

    The labor force population in January 2007 was estimated at 36.4 million. This translated to a labor force participation rate (LFPR) of 64.8 percent.

    Total employment in January 2007 was 33.5 million, resulting to a national employment rate of 92.2 percent.

    Employed persons in the services sector reached 16.9 million. Those in the agriculture sector were estimated at 11.6 million and those in the industry sector at 5.0 million.

    Total unemployed persons numbered 2.8 million in January 2007, which translated to an unemployment rate of 7.8 percent.

    Underemployment rate was estimated at 21.5 percent in January 2007.

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    TECHNICAL NOTES

    The Labor Force Survey (LFS) is a nationwide quarterly survey conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO). For this release, the data being presented are based on the final results of the January 2007 round of the LFS.

    The reference period used in the survey is the past seven (7) days preceding the date of visit of the enumerator. The number of sample households was 51,000.

    The concepts and definitions used in the survey can be found in the regular NSO-ISH Bulletins. Some are given below:

    a. Labor force - population 15 years old and over who contribute to the production of goods and services in the country. It comprises the employed and unemployed.

    b. Employed - persons in the labor force who are reported either at work or with a job or business although not at work. Persons at work are those who did some work, even for an hour during the reference period.

    c. Unemployed - persons in the labor force who are reported as: (1) without work; and (2) currently available for work; and (3) seeking work or not seeking work because of the belief that no work is available, or awaiting results of previous job application, or because of temporary illness or disability, bad weather or waiting for rehire or job recall

    Note: The new definition of unemployed was adopted starting April 2005 per NSCB Resolution No. 15 dated October 20, 2004.

    The old definition of unemployed considered only two criteria:

    1) Without work and looking for work; or

    2) Without work and not looking for work due to valid reasons.

    d. Underemployed - employed persons who express the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or an additional job, or have a new job with longer working hours

    e. Labor force participation rate (LFPR) - ratio of total labor force to the total household population 15 years and over

    f. Employment rate - proportion of employed persons to the total labor force

    g. Unemployment rate - proportion of unemployed persons to the total labor force

    h. Underemployment rate - proportion of underemployed persons to total employed persons

    Starting with the July 2003 round, the LFS used the 2003 Master Sample Design. Using this new design, the number of samples increased from 41,000 to about 51,000 sample households.

    The province of Basilan had been included in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao but Isabela City (Basilan) remained under Region IX, in accordance with Executive Order No.36.

    The 1992 four-digit code for Philippine Standard Occupational Classification (PSOC) and 1994 Philippine Standard Industry Classification (PSIC) were used in classifying the occupation and industry.

    Starting with the January 2007 LFS round, the population projections based on the 2000 Census of Population was adopted to generate the labor force statistics. This is in compliance with NSCB Resolution No. 1 series of 2005 entitled "Adoption of the Methodology Used in Generating the 2000 Census of Population and Housing-Based National Population Projections."

     

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    Source:   National Statistics Office
                     Manila, Philippines
     
    Page last revised:   June 3, 2008