PHILIPPINE LABOR FORCE SURVEY
OCTOBER 2000
(Preliminary Results)

SUMMARY:

Note: October 1999 and October 2000 population figures were estimated based on the 1995 Census-Based Population Projections while figures for January, April and July 2000 were estimated based on the 1980 Census-based Population Projections, which have been discontinued.

• Labor force in October 2000 increased by 0.7% compared to the same period last year. Labor force participation rate however declined to 64.3 percent in October 2000 from 65.7 percent in October 1999.
• Employed persons increased by 0.05%, from its level last year.
• Negative year-on-year growth in employment between October 1999 and October 2000 was observed in agriculture, fishery and forestry and in industry.
• Unemployment rate rose to 10.1% from 9.6 % last year.
• Underemployment rate, however, moved down to 19.9% from 21.9% a year ago.

HIGHLIGHTS

Persons aged 15 years old and over...

• Persons aged 15 years old and over reached 48.1 million in October 2000, increased by 2.8 percent from 46.7 million a year earlier.

Of the 48.1 million persons 15 years old and over, there were those who joined the labor force ...

• The labor force population in October 2000 increased by 0.70 percent to 30.9 million from 30.7 million last year.
• Those who were not in the labor force like housewives, students, disabled and retired persons numbered 17.2 million up from 16.1 million a year ago.
• There was a decrease of 1.4 percentage points in the labor force participation rate, from 65.7 percent in October 1999 to 64.3 percent.

Of the 31.0 million persons in the labor force, there were those who were employed and those who were not ...

• The number of employed persons in October 2000 increased to 27.775 million, up by 0.05 percent from 27.762 million in October 1999.
• However, employment rate dropped by 0.5 percentage points to 89.9 percent from 90.4 percent last year.
• The increase in employment resulted to a 6.9 percent increase in unemployment levels. The number of unemployed persons increased to 3.1 million in October 2000 compared with 2.9 million in October 1999.

Of the 27.8 million persons employed, there were those either working in agriculture, industry or services ...

• Employment in the agriculture sector declined in October 2000 with the number of employed in this sector recorded at 10.4 million. This was 0.97 percent decrease from 10.5 million last year. Its share to total employed declined by 0.4 percentage points, from 37.8 percent to 37.4 percent.
• The industry sector declined by 57 thousand with all classes of workers contributing to the decrease in employment. Likewise, its share to total employment decreased by 0.2 percentage points, from 16.2 percent to 16.0 percent in October 2000.
• On the other hand, employment in the services sector increased by 1.4 percent to 12.9 million in October 2000 from 12.7 million last year.

Of the 1.4 percent increase in services ...

• Increases in employment in wholesale and retail trade (121 thousand), transportation, storage and communication (56 thousand) and community, social and personal services (33 thousand) offset the 4.8 percent decline in employment in financing, insurance, real estate and business services sector.

Of the 1.0 percent drop in agriculture, fishery and industry�

• The 0.1 million decline in agriculture employment was attributable to decreases among unpaid family workers (79 thousand) and wage and salary workers (121 thousand).

Of the 1.3 percent decrease in industry. . .

• Employment in industry sector declined by 1.3 percent as a result of decreases in employment in construction (46 thousand), manufacturing (4 thousand), and electricity, gas and water (25 thousand).
• Only mining and quarrying reported an increase in employment level of 20.5 percent from 88 thousand in October 1999 to 106 thousand in October 2000.

Of the 27.8 million employed, there were those who were paid wages and salaries, worked on their account, or worked for the family...

• The unpaid family workers contributed to the decrease in the October 2000 employment level which dropped by 2.0 percent to 3.47 million from 3.53 million last year.
• Own-account workers came with 263 thousand increase in employment, from 10.2 million last October 1999 to 10.5 million this year.
• Wage and salary workers, likewise, decreased in proportion to total employment. Their proportion to total employment was registered at 49.8 percent from 50.5 percent last year. The number dropped to 13.8 million in October 2000, decreased by 181 thousand from 14.0 million last year.

The employed by region ...

• Seven regions showed decreases in employment levels with the National Capital Region posting the highest decrease of 160 thousand followed by Cagayan Valley at 39 thousand and Western Visayas at 20 thousand.
• Southern Tagalog registered the least decrease in employment at 5 thousand and Central Mindanao ranked next at 6 thousand.
• Nine regions experienced growth in employment level during the reference quarter. Central Visayas posted the highest increase of 77 thousand followed by Bicol Region (61 thousand), Northern Mindanao (45 thousand), Central Luzon (23 thousand) and Eastern Visayas at 19 thousand.
• Out of the sixteen regions, five regions posted an increase in employment rate from October 1999 to October 2000. Northern Mindanao registered the highest increase of 0.8 percentage point. Bicol Region and Central Visayas came next with 0.4 percentage point each and Central Luzon and Southern Mindanao with 0.1 percentage point increase.
• Among the regions reporting decline in employment rate, Central Mindanao registered the biggest decrease of 2.2 percentage points from 93.6 percent in October 1999 to 91.4 percent in October 2000.

The employed by number of hours worked ...

• The number of full-time workers decreased by 222 thousand from 18.3 million in October 1999 to 18.1 million this year. Its share to total employed also decreased slightly by 0.9 percentage points from 65.9 percent to 65.0 percent.
• Those who worked for less than 40 hours increased in levels as well as proportion to total employment. Last year's estimate of 9.1 million (with a share of 32.9%) increased to 9.4 million (with a share of 33.9%).

The employed by occupation...

• The production and related workers posted the highest increase with an increment of 189 thousand in employment levels. The sales workers likewise showed increase with 70 thousand together with the clerical workers with 29 thousand increase.
• The groups that posted decreases were professional, technical and related workers (86 thousand), agricultural, animal husbandry and forestry workers (118 thousand), service workers (72 thousand), and administrative workers (6 thousand).

Of the employed, there were those who desired more hours of work, the underemployed...

• The number of underemployed persons or those who desired additional hours of work decreased by 560 thousand to 5.5 million in October 2000 from 6.1 million a year ago. Its share to total employed decreased by 2.0 percentage points from 21.9 percent to 19.9 percent.
• Most of the underemployed persons were found mostly in rural areas comprising about 62.3 percent of the total underemployed.
• Around 58.0 percent of the underemployed in rural areas worked for less than 40 hours while in the urban areas less than half (46.7%) of the underemployed worked for less than 40 hours.

And there were those who looked for work and did not find any, the unemployed...

• In October 2000, unemployment rate was estimated at 10.1 percent, increasing by 0.5 percentage points from last year�s estimate of 9.6 percent.
• Likewise, unemployment levels increased by 6.9 percent to 3.1 million in October 2000 from 2.9 million in October 1999.
• Three regions posted a double-digit unemployment rate with Metro Manila posting the highest unemployment rate of 17.8 percent. This was followed by Southern Tagalog (11.3%) and Central Visayas (10.4%).

Technical Notes

• Starting with the October 2000 round of the Labor Force Survey, the population projection based on the 1995 Census of Population was adopted to generate the labor force and employment statistics. The said methodology is in compliance with NSCB Resolution No. 13 series of 1999 entitled "Adopting the Methodology Used in Generating City/Municipal Population Projections, 1995-2010".

• Using the 1995 census-based population projection, estimates were generally lower compared to the 1980 projections. For the population 15 years old and over, the ratio of the 1995 projection over the 1980 projection was computed at 0.96 for the three survey periods of July 1999, October 1999 and July 2000.

• The statistics generated for the labor force and employment likewise showed lower results using the 1995 projection compared to those using the 1980 projection with the ratio computed at 0.96. The unemployment statistics showed closer results with ratio at 0.98.

• While the levels were lower using the 1995 projections compared with those based on the 1980 projections, the rates, i.e., employment and unemployment rates showed minimal differences with changes varying from 0.1 to 0.2 percentage point in the three survey periods.

Comparative Labor Force Survey Estimates:
July 1999, July 2000 and October 2000
(Using the 1980 and 1995 Census-Base Population Projections)