The Labor Force Survey (LFS) provides a snapshot or the stock of economically active persons in the country at a 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 period using the Labor Force Framework.

• The results of the April 2017 Labor Force Survey showed that the Cordillera Administrative Region’s labor force participation rate of persons whose age is 15 years old and over was estimated at 61.98 percent or about 768 thousand individuals.
• Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) was among the region with an LFPR higher than the national rate of 61.4 percent. It dropped by 3.9 percentage points from 65.9 percent in April 2016 to 62.0 percent in April 2017.
• Central Visayas had the highest LFPR of 67.3 percent translated to about 3.5 million persons in the labor force.

Figure 1. Percentage of Persons in the Labor Force of the Philippines:

April 2017

 

 Employment rate in CAR decreases by 1.8%

• The number of employed persons had a slight decrease from 96.0 percent in April 2016 to 95.96 percent in April 2017.

CAR employs more males

• Of the 768 thousand employed persons in CAR in April 2017, 61.8 percent were males while 38.2 percent were females.
• There was an increase in the number of employed males in the region by 2.1 percent. The increase in males corresponded to the decrease in the percentage of employed
  females in the region.

More than a third of employed have high school education

• As to educational attainment of employed persons, 38.0 percent had junior high school education of which 26.1 percent graduated while 12.0 percent did not graduate
• Employed persons with college education followed with 32.3 percent of the total employed persons in the region. Of these, 21.3 earned a bachelor’s degree while 11.0 percent did not finish college.
• Employed persons with elementary level education came third with a share of 23.5 percent of which 10.6 percent graduated while 12.9 percent did not graduate.
• Employed persons with Post-Secondary level education accounted to only 4.4 percent of the total employed persons in the region. There were 4.3 percent employed persons who graduated while 0.1 percent were undergraduates.
• The percentage of employed persons in CAR for April 2017 with no education or grade level completed was at 1.2 percent. This level had the lowest incidence of employment in the region.

Figure 3. Employed Persons by Highest Grade Completed, CAR:

April 2017

 

Services sector employs the most

• By sector, the Services Sector employed the most at 44.0 percent, followed by Agriculture at 41.0 percent and Industry at 15.1 percent.
• By major industry group, Agriculture and Forestry continued to be the biggest employer in the region with 40.6 percent share in April 2017.
• Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles ranked as the second largest major industry group with 13.2 percent of the total employed persons in April 2017.
• Manufacturing shared only 3.5 percent of the total employed persons in the region in April 2017 considering that this sub-industry group contributes the most to the regional economy.

Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers comprise 25.7%

• Among the occupation groups, skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers was the largest group of employed persons in CAR comprising 25.7 percent of the total regional employment in April 2017. This increased by 3.1 percentage points compared to same period last year.
• Elementary occupations ranked as the second largest occupation group with 25.4 percent of the total employed persons in April 2017. This group decreased by 4.4 percentage points from April 2016.
• Managers made up the third largest occupational group accounting for 12.9 percent of the total employed in April 2017.
• The rest of the major occupation groups comprised 35.8 percent of the total employed persons in the entire labor force of the region.

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.