The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) - Benguet will be undertaking  the July  2025 Labor  Force Survey (LFS) together with the first  visit  of the  2025 Family  Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) on July 8-31, 2025. The  monthly LFS aims to generate high frequency data on the Philippine labor market to better monitor and assess the country’s employment situation and economic conditions. Its result serve as vital inputs for planning, policy formulation, and implementation of programs that promote gainful employment and support livelihood opportunities for Filipinos.

Meanwhile, the FIES aims to gather detailed information on family income and expenditure, including sources of income and spending levels. The data help determine income distribution and the degree of inequality among families. The FIES is a survey on family income and expenditure of households undertaken by the PSA across the country. It is the main source of  data on family income and expenditure in the Philippines. The FIES aims to accomplish the following objectives:

a)    gather data on family income, sources of income, family expenditure and related information, affecting family income and expenditure levels and patterns in the Philippines;
b)    determine the income distribution, levels of living and spending patterns, and the degree of inequality among families;
c)    provide inputs in the estimation of the country’s poverty threshold and incidence; and
d)    To provide benchmark information to update the weights used in the estimation of Consumer Price Index (CPI)

The first round of the FIES  this July 2025 will gather  data on income and expenditure of families for the first semester, 01 January to 30 June 2025  while the second round in January 2026   will gather data for the period July 01 to December 31, 2025.   The Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) application as a method of data collection will be utilized during field operation. Starting the 2023 FIES, the 2023 Geo-enabled Master Sample based on the results of the 2020 Census of Population and Housing (CPH) has been  adopted. The FIES played  a crucial role in evidence-based policymaking. It was used on the formulation and evaluation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law. FIES data also served as input to the Philippine Development Plan (PDP), supported the estimation of official poverty statistics, and guided the formulation of the Listahanan, which identifies beneficiaries of social protection programs.

A total of one hundred ten  (110) Statistical Researchers were  hired for Baguio City and Benguet for the data collection. The third level training  will be conducted on the first week of July 2025.

Relative  to this,  PSA-Benguet  encourages everyone, especially the selected sample households, to please support and cooperate in the conduct of the said statistical  activity. Under Section 26 of Republic Act 10625, the household supplied information will be held strictly confidential and the report cannot be used for purposes of taxation, investigation or enforcement procedure, nor will be published except in the form of statistical summaries in which no reference to any individual person shall appear.

Once again, the office would like to extend its utmost gratitude for the unending support of the public to all the different surveys and censuses undertaken by the office.

IMELDA L. BUYUCCAN (SGD)
Chief Statistical Specialist