Six percent of the estimated 29 million children 5 to 17 years old are working, according to the results of the 2010 Annual Poverty Indicators Survey (APIS). In this report, working children are family members 5 to 17 years old who worked at anytime from January 1 to June 30, 2010.

Nine in ten (91%) of the working children 5 to 11 years old and five in ten (52%) of those aged 12 to 17 are unpaid family members in own family-operated farm or business. Two in five (44%) working children 12 to 17 years old are wage and salary workers (Table 3). Wage and salary workers include those who worked for private households, private establishments and government offices and those who worked with pay in own family-operated farm or business.

Among the regions, Northern Mindanao has the highest percentage of working children, about 13 percent of the population aged 5 to 17 years, followed by Bicol, Zamboanga Peninsula, and Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) with 10 percent each. National Capital Region has the lowest percentage of working children, with one percent. Nationally, the proportion of working children among males is higher than among females (9% and 4%, respectively) (Table 1). More than one-third (35%) of the total working children belong to the lowest per capita income decile (Table 2).

Northern Mindanao exhibits the greatest proportion of working children among age groups 5 to 11 and 12 to 17. In Northern Mindanao, Cagayan Valley, Zamboanga Peninsula, CAR, Bicol and MIMAROPA, one in four male children aged 12 to 17 is working.

The APIS is a nationwide survey conducted during the years when the Family Income and Expenditures Survey (FIES) is not carried out. The 2010 APIS was conducted in August 2010 with a sample size of around 25,000 households, of which 21,023 households were eligible for the survey. Of the total number of eligible sample households, 20,103 were successfully interviewed. This translated to a response rate of 95.6 percent at the national level.

(Sgd.) CARMELITA N. ERICTA

Administrator