The Labor Force Survey (LFS) provides a snapshot or the stock of economically active persons in the country at a particular point or reference period. It aims to monitor the changes in the employment status of persons in the working age population (employed, unemployed and not in the labor force) during a specified time period using the Labor Force Framework.
The LFS concept and measurement follows the international standards concerning statistics of the economically active population, employment, unemployment and underemployment adopted by the 13th International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) in October 1982 at Geneva, Switzerland.
CAR Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) is 60.1%
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The results of the January 2017 Labor Force Survey showed that the Cordillera Administrative Regions’ labor force participation rate of persons whose age is 15 years old and over was estimated at 60.1 percent or about 743 thousand.
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Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) was among the region with an LFPR lower than the national rate of 60.7 percent. It dropped by 6.9 percent from 67.0 percent in January 2016 to 60.1 percent in January 2017.
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Negros Island Region had the highest LFPR of 66.1 percent translated to about 2,097,000 persons in the labor force.
Figure 1. Percentage of Persons in the Labor Force of the Philippines:
January 2017
Employment rate in CAR decreases by 1.8%
- The number of employed persons decreased by 1.8 percentage point from 95.7 percent in January 2016 to 93.9 percent in January 2017.
Table 1. Percentage of Employed Persons in the Labor Force of CAR: January 2016 and January 2017
| Country / Region | Labor Force Participation Rate | Employment Rate | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2016 (%) | January 2017 (%) | January 2016 (%) | January 2017 (%) | |
| Philippines | 63.3 | 60.7 | 94.2 | 93.4 |
| CAR | 67.0 | 60.1 | 95.7 | 93.9 |
More males are employed in CAR
- Of the 743,000 employed persons in CAR in January 2017, 61.0 percent were males while 39.0 percent were females.
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There was an increase in the number of employed males in the region by 1.0 percent. Consequently, the number of employed females in the region decreased by 1.0 percent from January 2016 to January 2017.
Figure 2: Percentage Distribution of Employed Persons by Sex, CAR:
January 2016 and January 2017
More than a third of employed have high school education
- As to educational attainment of employed persons, 35.0 percent had high school education of which 23.0 percent graduated while 12.0 percent did not graduate.
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Employed persons with college education followed with 32.0 percent of the total employed persons in the region. Of these, 21.0 earned a bachelor’s degree while 11.0 percent did not finish college.
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Employed persons with elementary level education came third with a share of 24.0 percent, of which 10.0 percent graduated while 14.0 percent did not graduate.
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Employed persons with Post-Secondary level education accounted to only 5.4 percent of the total employed persons in the region. There were 5.3 percent employed persons who graduated while 0.1 percent were undergraduates.
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The percentage of employed persons in CAR for January 2017 with no education or grade level completed was at 2.0 percent. This level had the lowest incidence of employment in the region.
Figure 3. Employed Persons by Highest Grade Completed, CAR:
January 2017
Services sector employs the most
- By sector, the Services Sector employed the most with a share of 44.7 percent, followed by Agriculture with 41.8 percent and Industry with 13.4 percent.
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By major industry group, Agriculture and Forestry continued to be the biggest employer in the region with 22.5 percent share in January 2017.
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Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles ranked as the second largest major industry group with 20.1 percent of the total employed persons in January 2017.
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Manufacturing shared only 8.3 percent of the total employed persons in the region in January 2017 considering that this sub-industry group contributes the most to the regional economy.
Table 2. Percentage Distribution of Employed Persons by Major Industry Groups in
CAR: January 2016 and January 2017
| Country / Region | Agriculture | Industry | Services | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2016 | January 2017 | January 2016 | January 2017 | January 2016 | January 2017 | |
| Philippines | 27.0 | 25.5 | 15.7 | 17.4 | 56.26 | 57.1 |
| CAR | 44.0 | 41.8 | 12.94 | 13.4 | 43.0 | 44.7 |
Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers comprise 26.2%
- Among the occupation groups, Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers was the largest group of employed persons in CAR with 26.2 percent of the total regional employment in January 2017. This increased by 5.2 percentage points compared to January 2016.
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Elementary occupations ranked as the second largest occupation group with 26.1 percent of the total employed persons in January 2017, which decreased by 7.2 percentage points compared to same period last year.
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Managers made up the third largest occupational group accounting for 10.7 percent in January 2017.
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The rest of the major occupation groups comprised 37.0 percent of the total employed persons in the entire labor force of the region in January 2017.
Table 3. Percentage Distribution of Employed Persons by Major Occupation Groups in CAR:
January 2016 and January 2017
Underemployment at 25.2%
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The underemployment rate of CAR was 17.3 percent of which 8.7 percent of the underemployed persons already worked 40 hours per week and over or those invisibly underemployed.
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Meanwhile, those who work less than 40 hours a week or those visibly underemployed accounted for 8.6 percent of the total underemployed population in the region.
Unemployment
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Unemployment rate in the region increased by 1.8 percentage point, from 4.3 percent in January 2016 to 6.1 percent in January 2017.
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The unemployed male population accounted for 61.8 percent of the total unemployed persons in the region, while 38.2 percent were unemployed females.
Table 4. Distribution of Unemployed Persons by Sex in CAR: January 2017
| Unemployed Persons | Percentage | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2016 | January 2017 | January 2016 | January 2017 | |
| Male | 16, 000 | 28, 000 | 47.05% | 61.80% |
| Female | 18,000 | 17,000 | 52.94 | 38.20% |
| CAR | 34,000 | 45, 000 | 100.00% | 100.00% |
Technical Notes
In the Labor Force or Economically Active Population - This refers to population 15 years old and over who are either employed or unemployed in accordance with the definitions described below.
Employed Persons - Persons who, during the reference period are 15 years and over as of their last birthday and are reported either:
a. At work - Those who do any work even for one hour during the reference period for pay or profit, or work without pay on the farm or business enterprise operated by a member of the same household related by blood, marriage or adoption; or
b. With a job but not at work - Those who have a job or business but are not at work because of temporary illness/injury, vacation or other reasons. Likewise, persons who expect to report for work or to start operation of a farm or business enterprise within two weeks from the date of the enumerator's visit are considered employed.
Underemployed Persons - Employed persons who express the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or an additional job; or to have a new job with longer working hours. Visibly underemployed persons are those who work for less than 40 hours during the reference period and want additional hours of work.
Unemployed Persons - Persons who, during the reference period are 15 years old and over as of their last birthday who have no job/business and actively looking for work. Also considered as unemployed are persons without a job or business who are reported not looking for work because of their belief that no work was available or because of temporary illness/disability, bad weather, pending job application or waiting for job interview.
Persons Not in the Labor Force - Persons 15 years old and over who are neither employed nor unemployed according to the definitions mentioned. It refers to those persons who are not looking for work because of reasons such as housekeeping, schooling, etc. Examples are housewives, students, disabled or retired persons.
Work - Any economic activity that a person does for pay in cash or in kind, in any establishment, office, farm, private home or for profit or without pay on a family farm or enterprise. It also includes what a farm operator or member of the operator's family does on the farm operated by another household on exchange labor arrangement.
Work also refers to any activity that a person does in relation to minor activities in home gardening, raising of crops, fruits, hogs, poultry etc., fishing for home consumption and manufacturing for own use are also considered work. There must be some harvest in the case of home gardening, raising of crops, fruits and nuts and gathering of wild fruits and vegetables; animals disposed of (sold, consumed, bartered or given away) or some catch in fishing in order that these activities will be considered work.
Unpaid family workers or those who work without pay on own family-operated farm or business - These are members of the family who assist another member in the operation of the family farm or business enterprise, and who do not receive any wage or salary for their work. The room and board and any cash allowance given as incentives are not counted as compensation for these family workers.
Number of hours worked - This refers to the total number of hours a person actually worked in all the jobs/businesses that he held. It includes the duration or the period the person was occupied in his work, including overtime, but excluding hours paid but not worked. The normal working hours per day is the usual or prescribed working hours of a person in his primary job/business which is considered a full day's work.
