The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) - Benguet will be undertaking  the July 2023 Labor  Force Survey (LFS) together with the first visit  of the  2023 Family  Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) on 08 to 31 July 2023. The  LFS is a nationwide quarterly survey of households conducted by the PSA  to gather data on the demographic and socio-economic  characteristics of the population. It is aimed to provide a quantitative framework for the preparation of plans and formulation of policies affecting the labor market. Data from the survey provides information on major labor market trends such as  labor force participation and unemployment rates, hours worked, past industries and occupations of the currently unemployed persons.

The Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) is a survey on family income and expenditure of households undertaken by the PSA across the country. It is the main source on data on family income and expenditure in the Philippines. The FIES aims to accomplish the following objectives:

a)To 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)To determine the income distribution, levels of living and spending patterns, and the degree of inequality among families;

c)To provide benchmark information to update the weights used in the estimation of Consumer Price Index (CPI); and

d)To provide inputs in the estimation of the country’s poverty threshold and incidence.

The first    The first round of the FIES will gather data on income and expenditure of families for the first semester, 01 January to 30 June 2023 while the second round in January 2024 will gather data for the period July 01 to December 31, 2023. This year, the PSA will be utilizing  the Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) application as a method of data collection during field operation. Further, the 2020 Philippine Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose (PCOICOP) will also be adopted in classifying the expenditure items of the family for this survey round. For the 2023 FIES, the 2023 Geo-enabled Master Sample based on the results of the 2020 Census of Population and Housing (CPH) is adopted.

A total of two hundred twenty six (226) Enumeration Areas with 3,104 sample households (1,536 and 1,568 in Baguio City and Benguet, respectively) will be enumerated for this survey round. Minimum public health, safety standards for the containment of COVID-19 will be strictly observed during all phases of the field operations.

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.