Results from the July 2017 Labor Force Survey (LFS)

^a/ Estimates for July 2017 are preliminary and may change.

The employment rate in July 2017 was estimated at 94.4 percent.  In July 2016, the employment rate was 94.6 percent.

Regions with lowest employment rates were Ilocos Region (91.8%), National Capital Region (NCR) (92.1%), and Central Luzon (92.9%)(Table 4).  The labor force participation rate (LFPR) in July 2017 was estimated at 60.6 percent given the population 15 years old and over of 70.1 million.  The LFPR in July 2016 was 63.2 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 55.6 percent of the total employed in July 2017 (Table 1).   Among them, those engaged in the wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles accounted for the largest percentage (33.9%) of workers in the services sector (Table 2).  In July 2016, workers in the services sector accounted for 55.0 percent of the total employed, with those engaged in the wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles making up the largest proportion (36.0%) of workers (Tables 1 and 2).

Workers in the agriculture sector comprised the second largest group making up 25.2 percent of the total employed in July 2017, while workers in the industry sector made up the smallest group registering 19.2 percent of the total employed.  In    July 2016, workers in agriculture accounted for 27.2 percent of  the  total employed; while  workers in the  industry sector, 17.8 percent.  The July 2017 LFS results also showed that in the industry sector, workers in the construction and manufacturing subsectors made up the largest groups, accounting for 50.1 percent  and  45.3 percent  of  the workers in these  subsectors,  respectively  (Tables 1 and 2).

Among the occupation groups, workers in the elementary occupations remained the largest group making up 26.8 percent of the total employed in July 2017 (Table 1).  In July 2016, such workers made up 26.9 percent of the total employed in that period.  Managers comprised the second largest occupation group (15.3%), followed by service and sales workers (14.5%), and skilled agricultural, forestry, and fishery workers (13.5%) in July 2017.

Employed persons fall into any of these 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 are 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 2017, the wage and salary workers made up 63.6 percent of the total employed, with those working in private establishments continuing to account for the largest share (Table 1).  They made up 49.7 percent of the total employed in July 2017 and 47.9 percent in July 2016.  The second largest class of workers were the self-employed making up 27.7 percent of the total employed in July 2017 while it was 27.6 percent in July 2016.  Unpaid family workers accounted for 5.2 percent of the total employed in July 2017 and 7.7 percent of the total employed in July 2016.

Employed persons are classified as either full-time workers or part-time workers.  Full-time workers refer to those who worked for 40 hours or more during the reference week, while those who worked for less than 40 hours were considered part-time workers.  Of the total employed persons in July 2017, 68.0 percent were full-time workers, while 31.5 percent were part-time workers (Table 2).  By comparison, in July 2016, full-time workers comprised 67.5 percent while part-time workers, 32.0 percent.  In July 2017, workers worked 42.2 hours per week, on average, compared with 42.6 in July 2016.

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 2017, the underemployment rate, which is the percentage of the underemployed to the total employed, was estimated at 16.3 percent.  In July 2016, the underemployment rate was 17.4 percent (Table 4).

Underemployed persons who work for less than 40 hours in a week are called visibly underemployed persons.  They accounted for 51.6 percent of the  total underemployed in July 2017 and 54.9 percent in July 2016 (Table 3).  By comparison, the underemployed persons who  worked  for 40 hours  or more in a week made up 47.4 percent.  By  sector, 46.8 percent of the underemployed worked in the services sector, while 33.1 percent were in the agriculture sector.  Those in the industry sector accounted for 20.1 percent (Table 3).

The unemployment rate in July 2017 was estimated at 5.6 percent.  The unemployment rate in July 2016 was 5.4 percent.  Among the regions, Ilocos Region (8.2%),    National Capital Region (NCR) (7.9%) and Central Luzon (7.1%) were the regions with the highest unemployment rates (Table 4).

Among the unemployed persons in July 2017, 64.0 percent were males.  Of the total unemployed, the age group 15 to 24 years comprised 49.3 percent, while the age group 25 to 34, 29.7 percent. By educational attainment, 21.3 percent of the unemployed were college graduates, 14.5 percent were college undergraduates, and 33.1 percent have completed junior high school (Table 3).

LISA GRACE S. BERSALES, Ph.D

Undersecretary

National Statistician and Civil Registrar General

Technical Notes

• 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 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 2016 round, the Labor Force Survey (LFS) adopted the 2013 Master Sample Design, with a sample size of approximately 44,000 households.
• The 2012 Philippine Standard Occupational Classification (PSOC) was adopted starting April 2016.  The 1992 PSOC had been used prior to April 2016.
• Starting  with  the April 2016 LFS round, the  population  projections  based  on  the  2010 Census of Population and Housing (2010 CPH) has been adopted to generate the labor force statistics.
• In January 2017 round, Computer Aided Personal Interviewing (CAPI) using Tablet was utilized in the LFS enumeration.  Starting April 2017 round, Computer Aided Data Collection System (CADaCS) has been used in the LFS enumeration.
• 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.