^a/ Estimates for July 2015 are preliminary and may change.

^b/ Estimates based on July 2015 data which excludes the province of Leyte.

^c/ The province of Leyte was not covered in the July 2014 LFS round.

The employment rate in July 2015 was estimated at 93.5 percent.

Four regions, namely, Central Luzon (91.2%), Ilocos Region (91.8%), National Capital Region (NCR) (91.8%), and CALABARZON (92.0%) had employment rates lower than the national figure (Table 4).  The labor force participation rate (LFPR) in July 2015 was estimated at 62.9 percent.  The labor force population consists of the employed and the unemployed 15 years old and over.

Workers were grouped into three broad sectors, namely, agriculture, industry and services sector.  Workers in the services sector comprised the largest proportion of the population who are employed.  These workers made up 55.5 percent of the total employed in July 2015 (Table 1).   Among them, those engaged in wholesale and retail trade or in the repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles accounted for the largest percentage (33.3%) of workers in services sector (Table 2).

Workers in the agriculture sector comprised the second largest group making up 28.0 percent of the total employed in July 2015, while workers in the industry sector made up the smallest group registering 16.5 percent of the total employed.  The July 2015 LFS results also showed that in the industry sector, workers in the manufacturing subsector made up the largest group, accounting for 50.1 percent of workers in this sector, and those in construction, the second largest group, making up 44.1 percent (Tables 1 and 2).

Among the occupation groups, the laborers and unskilled workers remained the largest group making up 32.3 percent of the total employed in July 2015 (Table 1).  Officials of the Government and special interest organizations, corporate executives, managers, and managing proprietors (16.5% of the total employed) comprised the second largest occupation group, followed by service workers and shop/market sales workers (12.5%), and farmers, forestry workers and fishermen (11.8%).

Employed persons fall into any of these broad categories: (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 were classified further as those who work for private households, private establishments, government or government-controlled corporations, and those who work with pay in own family-operated farm or business.  In July 2015, the wage and salary workers made up 62.4 percent of the total employed, with those working in private establishments continuing to account for the largest percentage (Table 1).  They made up 47.7 percent of the total employed in July 2015.  The second largest class of workers were the self-employed making up 26.2 percent of the total employed in July 2015.  The third largest class of workers consisted of the government or government corporation workers, accounting for 8.6 percent of the total employed.  Unpaid family workers accounted for 8.1 percent of the total employed.

Employed persons are classified as either full-time workers or part-time workers.  Full-time workers refer to those who work for 40 hours or more in a week, while part-time workers work for less than 40 hours.  Of the total employed persons in July 2015, 67.0 percent were full-time workers, while 32.2 percent were part-time workers (Table 2).  In this round of LFS, workers worked 42.4 hours per week, on the average.

By definition, employed persons who express 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 are considered underemployed.  In July 2015, the underemployment rate, which is the percentage of the underemployed to the total employed, was estimated at 21.0 percent.

Underemployed persons who work for less than 40 hours in a week are called visibly underemployed persons.  They accounted for 50.5 percent of the total underemployed in July 2015 (Table 3).  By comparison, the underemployed persons who worked for 40 hours or more in a week made up 48.5 percent.  By sector, 44.2 percent of the underemployed worked in the services sector, while 38.3 percent were in the agriculture sector.  Those in the industry sector accounted for 17.6 percent (Table 3).

The unemployment rate in July 2015 was estimated at 6.5 percent.  Among the regions, Central Luzon (8.8%), NCR (8.2%), Ilocos Region (8.2%), and CALABARZON (8.0%) had unemployment rates higher than the national figure (Table 4).

Among the unemployed persons in July 2015, 62.1 percent were males.  Of the total unemployed, the age group 15 to 24 years comprised 50.4 percent, while the age group 25 to 34, 29.5 percent. By educational attainment, 22.2 percent of the unemployed were college graduates, 13.5 percent were college undergraduates, and 33.2 percent were high school graduates (Table 3).             

                                                           LISA GRACE S. BERSALES, Ph.D.

                                                                                                                        National Statistician

                                                                                                   Technical Notes

• Starting July 2003, the Labor Force Survey (LFS) adopted the 2003 Master Sample Design, with a sample size of approximately 50,000 households.
• Starting January 2012 LFS, the codes for industry adopted the 2009 Philippine Standard Industrial Classification (PSIC).  Prior to this, codes for industry used the 1994 PSIC.
• Question on vocational course was introduced in the January 2012 LFS questionnaire.
• Starting April 2005, the new unemployment definition was adopted per NSCB Resolution Number 15 dated October 20, 2004.  As indicated in the said resolution, the unemployed include all persons who are 15 years and over as of their last birthday and are reported as: (1) without work and currently available for work and seeking work; or (2) without work and currently available for work but not seeking work for the following reasons:

                    1.    Tired/believed no work available

                    2.    Awaiting results of previous job application

                    3.    Temporary illness/disability

                    4.    Bad weather

                    5.    Waiting for rehire/job recall

• Starting with the July 2007 LFS round, the population projections based on the 2000 Census of Population and Housing (CPH) was adopted to generate the labor force statistics.  The 2000 CPH-based population projections  has been endorsed as the official figures to be utilized for planning and programming purposes per NSCB Resolution No. 7 Series of 2006, entitled “Adopting  the Methodology Used in Generating the 2000 Census of Population and Housing-Based National Regional and Provincial Population Projections”.
• Overseas Filipino Workers are not considered part of the labor force in the Philippines.  Hence, in the LFS, data on economic characteristics of household members who are overseas workers are not collected.  For the LFS reports, they are excluded in the estimation of the size of working population, that is, population aged 15 years and older, and in the estimation of the labor force.