Employment in establishments in the National Capital Region shows sluggish gains

The preliminary result of the Labor Turnover Survey covering the first two quarters of 2019 showed positive growth in the labor turnover rate at 0.5 percent in the first quarter and continued to improve to 0.7 percent in the 2nd quarter.

Accession rate for the first and second quarters was almost unchanged at 9.3 percent and 9.5 percent, respectively. This implied that an average of 94 workers per 1000 employed for the two quarters  were hired for business expansion or replacement of separated workers. Separation rate, on the other hand, indicated that 88 workers per 1000 employed were either laid-off or quit their jobs during the first semester. (Table 1)

Stable employment in the Services Sector

While employment increment occurred in agriculture, forestry and fishing sector (6.3%) and industry sector (2.4%) in the first quarter, notable job losses in the same sectors were registered in the second quarter at -0.2 percent and -0.9 percent, respectively. (Figure 1)

Employment decrements were observed in mining and quarrying from 6.1 percent to -10.8 percent; electricity gas, steam and air conditioning supply from 0.6 percent to -1.0 percent; and manufacturing which remained to exhibit negative labor turnover rate from -1.6 percent to -1.3 percent. Meanwhile, employment gains in water supply, sewerage waste management and remediation activities and construction moved at a slower pace from 5.3 percent to 3.9 percent and 9.5 percent to 0.4 percent, respectively.

Employment growth in terms of labor turnover rate in services sector in the first quarter was stable as accession and separation rates both recorded at 9.0 percent. Employment in majority of the industries under this sector were negated by job losses recorded in transportation and storage (-0.4%), financial and insurance activities (-0.5%), administrative and support services activities (-0.6%) and other services activities (-0.3%).

In the second quarter, only services sector posted a positive labor turnover rate at 1.0 percent. Substantial employment increments were noted in other service activities at 5.5 percent and arts, entertainment and recreation at 5.2 percent. Other gainers of the sector were the financial and insurance activities (2.0%), accommodation and food service activities (1.8%), real estate activities (1.6%) and administrative and support service activities (1.4%). Increases in employment were also posted in information and communication (1.2%), wholesale and retail trade (1.0%), professional, scientific and technical activities (0.5%) and human health and social work activities (0.4 %). On the other hand, negative labor turnover rates were recorded in transportation and storage and education at 2.2 percent and 2.0 percent, respectively.

CLAIRE DENNIS S. MAPA, Ph.D.
Undersecretary
National Statistician and Civil Registrar General

See more at the Labor Turnover Survey (LTS) Landing page.

TECHNICAL NOTES

The Labor Turnover Survey (LTS) is being conducted by PSA to come up with timely information on labor market trends in the formal sector of the economy, the items of inquiry have been limited to employment, labor turnover and existing job vacancies.Labor turnover statistics, as a measure of labor demand, provides policy and decision makers complementary data on labor supply which helps them in examining and analyzing the labor market situation of the nation's economy.

Starting 2019, the LTS was conducted in a semi-annual frequency covering only establishments with 20 or more workers located in the National Capital Region (NCR). Using the establishment as the unit of enumeration, the survey sampling frame was extracted from the preliminary 2018 List of Establishments (LE) as of 08 January 2019. The survey covers 18 to 21 major industries classified according to the amended 2009 Philippine Standard Industrial Classification (PSIC). A total of 2,469 establishments were selected as samples for 2019 LTS.

This Press Release features the preliminary results of the survey based on the 90.7 percent and 80.5 percent response rates for all industries covered during the 1st and 2nd quarter 2019, respectively The final results will be posted one month after together with the LABSTAT Updates.