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Release Date :
Reference Number :
2017-156

Preliminary Results of the 2017 Annual Estimates of Labor Force Survey (LFS)

 

Philippines2017
Population 15 years and over (in 000)69,896
Labor Force Participation Rate (%)61.2
Employment Rate (%)94.3
Unemployment Rate (%)5.7
Underemployment Rate (%)16.1

 

Note: The methodology for the computation of annual estimates of labor and employment indicators is based on PSA Board Resolution No. 01, Series of 2017-151- Approving and Adopting the Official Methodology for Generating Annual Labor and Employment Estimates, using the average of the estimates of the four LFS rounds.

Source:  Philippine Statistics Authority, Annual Labor and Employment Estimates for 2017

 

The preliminary results of the Annual Labor and Employment Estimates for 2017 based on the average of the four (4) LFS rounds (January, April, July and October) reported an annual labor force participation rate of 61.2 percent out of 69.9 million population 15 years old and over.  This is equivalent to about 42.8 million economically active population comprising of either employed or unemployed persons.  The annual employment rate in 2017 was estimated at 94.3 percent; annual unemployment rate was 5.7 percent; and annual underemployment rate was 16.1 percent.

The total employed persons was approximately 40.3 million in 2017 (Table 1).  Employed persons were grouped into three broad sectors, namely, agriculture, industry and services sector.  Those in the services sector comprised the largest proportion of the population who are employed.  These employed persons made up 56.3 percent of the total employed in 2017 (Table 1).  About 19.6 percent were engaged in the wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles.  Workers in the agriculture sector comprised the second largest group making up 25.4 percent of the total employed in 2017, while workers in the industry sector made up the smallest group registering 18.3 percent of the total employed. 

As to occupation groups, workers in the elementary occupations remained the largest group making up 26.1 percent of the total employed in 2017 (Table 1).  Managers comprised the second largest occupation group (16.1%), followed by service and sales workers (15.0%), and skilled agricultural, forestry, and fishery workers (13.5%).

Employed persons fall into any of these classes of workers: (1) wage and salary workers, (2) self-employed workers without any paid employee, (3) employers in own family-operated farm or business, and (4) unpaid family workers.  Wage and salary workers are those who work for private households, private establishments, government and government-controlled corporations, and those who work with pay in own family-operated farm or business.  In 2017, the wage and salary workers accounted for 62.5 percent of the total employed persons of which workers in private establishments were the largest in proportion (49.0%), followed by workers in government and government-controlled corporations (8.4%), workers in private households (4.8%) and workers with pay in own family-operated farm or business (0.3%).  The second largest class of workers were the self-employed without any paid employee making up 27.8 percent of the total employed in 2017.  The unpaid family workers accounted for 6.0 percent, while the employer in own family-operated farm or business, 3.7 percent.

Employed persons are classified as either full-time workers or part-time workers.  Full-time workers are those who worked for 40 hours or more in a week, while those who worked for less than 40 hours were considered part-time workers.  Of the total employed persons in 2017, 65.2 percent were full-time workers, while 33.8 percent were part-time workers.  Those who did not report for work during the reference week comprised 0.9 percent (Table 1).

The underemployed persons or those employed persons who expressed the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job, or to have additional job, or to have a new job with longer working hours was estimated at 6.5 million persons corresponding to an underemployment rate of 16.1 percent (Tables 2 and 4).

Underemployed persons who work for less than 40 hours in a week are called visibly underemployed persons.  They accounted for 56.0 percent of the  total underemployed in  2017 (Table 2).  By comparison, the underemployed persons who  worked  for 40 hours  or more in a week made up 42.5 percent.  By  sector,  39.0 percent of the underemployed worked in the agriculture sector, while  34.7 percent were in the services sector.  Those in the industry sector accounted  for 26.3 percent (Table 2).

In 2017, the unemployed persons numbered about 2.4 million resulting to an annual unemployment rate of 5.7 percent (Table 3 and 4).  Of this number, 76.1 percent belonged to age group 15 to 34 years.  Those in the age group 15 to 24 years comprised 46.7 percent and those in the age group 25 to 34 years, 29.4 percent (Table 3).  Among the regions, Ilocos Region (8.9%), NCR (7.4%) and CALABARZON (7.0%) were the regions with the highest unemployment rates  (Table 4).

There were more unemployed males (65.6%) than unemployed females (34.4%).   By educational attainment, 31.8 percent of the unemployed were high school graduates, and 19.6 percent were college graduates (Table 3).

 

 

LISA GRACE S. BERSALES, Ph.D.

Undersecretary

National Statistician and Civil Registrar General

 

 

 

Technical Notes

 

The annual labor and employment statistics presented in this release for 2017 used the average estimates of labor and employment indicators from the four Labor Force Survey (LFS) rounds conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on a quarterly basis.  The use of the average estimates of the four-quarter rounds of the LFS data was based on PSA Board Resolution No. 01, Series of 2017-151 - Approving and Adopting the Official Methodology for Generating Annual Labor and Employment Estimates, approved on the 14th day of February 2017. 

For 2017, the methodology for annual labor and employment estimates uses the following formula to estimate employment, unemployment, underemployment and labor force participation rates:  Zi= ( ∑j Xij / ∑j Ykj ) x 100

where:

Zi  =  annual estimate for the rate of i where i refers to employment,  unemployment, underemployment and labor force participation

         Xij  =  estimate for the population of i for the jthround of LFS where

        i  refers to employed, unemployed, underemployed and labor force, and

        j  refers to the four rounds of LFS: January, April, July and October

       Ykj =  estimate for the population of k for the jthround of LFS where

      k  refers to labor force, employed persons and persons 15 years old and over,  and

       j  refers to the four rounds of LFS: January, April, July and October

The official methodology was deemed the most appropriate among methodologies reviewed and evaluated for the following reasons:  a) it captures the labor and employment situation in all four quarters of the year; b) the generation or cross tabulations (e.g., by class of workers, by occupation group) is more feasible for producer of estimates; c) it is the closest method for estimating the number of persons who work four times for the entire year; and d) these estimates are being used by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and its attached agencies and regional offices for planning/formulation of intervention programs.

 

Source:   Income and Employment Statistics Division

               Social Sector Statistics Service

               Philippine Statistics Authority

               Quezon City, Philippines

 

 

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