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Release Date :
Reference Number :
2011-011

 


Philippines    2010        2009   
   Population 15 years and over (in '000) 60,718 59,237
   Labor Force Participation Rate (%) 64.1 64.0
   Employment Rate (%) 92.7 92.5
   Unemployment Rate (%) 7.3 7.5
   Underemployment Rate (%) 18.7 19.1

The annual employment rate or the percentage of the labor force who were employed in 2010 was 92.7 percent. This rate was calculated using the average estimates of employed persons and persons in the labor force from the four rounds of the quarterly Labor Force Survey (LFS) conducted in 2010. Last year's employment rate was 92.5 percent.

Among regions, Cagayan Valley, Zamboanga Peninsula and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) posted employment rates of more than 96 percent. The National Capital Region (NCR) registered the lowest employment rate of 88.5 percent.

Of the estimated 36.0 million employed persons in 2010, more than half (51.8%) were engaged in services and about one-third (33.2%) were in agriculture. Most of those who worked in the services sector were into wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles and personal and household goods (19.5% of the total employed).

Of the total employed persons, the laborers and unskilled workers comprised the largest group (32.3%). This was followed by farmers, forestry workers and fishermen (16.0%); officials of government and special interest organizations, corporate executives, managers, managing proprietors and supervisors (13.8%); and service workers, shop and market sales workers (10.6%). The rest of the major occupation groups each comprised less than 10 percent ranging from 0.4 percent to 7.7 percent.

The majority (54.4%) of the employed were wage and salary workers, most of whom were in private establishments (40.4% of the total employed). Thirty percent were self-employed without any paid employee, four percent were employer in own family-operated business or farm while nearly 12 percent worked without pay in own family-operated farm or business.

More than half (63.5%) of the total employed were full time workers or have worked for at least 40 hours per week. On the average, employed persons worked 41.7 hours a week in 2010.

The number of underemployed workers in 2010 was 6.8 million, representing an annual underemployment rate of 18.7 percent. Underemployed workers are persons who express the desire to have additional hours of work in the present job, or to have an additional job, or to have a new job with longer working hours. The lowest underemployment rate was observed in Central Luzon (9.1%) while the highest was noted in Bicol Region (36.8%).

About 2.9 million Filipinos were unemployed in 2010 representing an unemployment rate of 7.3 percent for the year. The unemployed persons who have attained high school accounted for 45.2 percent of all unemployed. The proportion of unemployed males was greater than that of their female counterparts (63.3% compared to 36.7%).

The labor force population or those who are either employed or unemployed reached 38.9 million resulting to an annual labor force participation rate (LFPR) of 64.1 percent. Among regions, Northern Mindanao had the highest annual LFPR of 69.8 percent.

 

  (Sgd.) CARMELITA N. ERICTA
             Administrator

 

 


 

Technical Notes

The annual labor and employment statistics presented in this release used the average estimates of the four Labor Force Survey (LFS) rounds conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on a quarterly basis for 2009 and 2010. The use of the average estimates for annual LFS data was based on the Official Methodology for Generating Annual Labor and Employment Estimates per NSCB Resolution No. 9, Series of 2009 approved on the 6th day of July 2009, in Pasig City.

The methodology uses the following formula to estimate employment, unemployment, underemployment and labor force participation rates:

where:

The 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.

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