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 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.
Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) in CAR is 60.2%
- The result of the April 2018 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 60.17 percent or about 759 thousand individuals.
- Along with other six regions, Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) had an LFPR lower than the national rate of 60.9 percent. From 62.0 percent in April 2017 it dropped by 1.8 percentage points in April 2018 with 60.2 percent.
Figure 1. Percentage of Persons in the Labor Force by Region, Philippines:
April 2018
Employment rate in CAR increase by 0.7%
- The number of employed persons had a slight increase from 95.9 percent in April 2017 to 96.7 percent in April 2018.
Table 1. Percentage of Employed Persons in the Labor Force of CAR:
April 2017 and April 2018
More males are employed in CAR
- With a total of 734 thousand employed persons in CAR in April 2018, 62.4 percent were males while 37.6 percent were females.
- There was an increase in the number of employed males in the region by 0.6 percent. The increase in males corresponded to the decrease in the percentage of employed females in the region.
Figure 2: Percentage Distribution of Employed Persons by Sex, CAR:
April 2017 and April 2018
Most of the employed have high school education
- In terms of educational attainment of employed persons, 40.1 percent had junior high school education of which 28.5 percent graduated while 11.6 percent did not graduate.
- Employed persons with college education followed with 29.4 percent of the total employed persons in the region. Of these, 17.8 percent earned a bachelor’s degree while 11.6 percent did not finish college.
- Elementary level education came third with a share of 24.6 percent of employed persons which 12.9 percent graduated while 11.7 percent did not graduate.
- Employed persons with Post-Secondary level education accounted only 2.7 percent of the total employed persons in the region. There were 2.6 percent employed persons who graduated while 0.1 percent were undergraduates.
- The percentage of employed persons in CAR for April 2018 with no education or grade level completed was 1.9 percent. This level had the lowest incidence of employment in the region.
Figure 3. Employed Persons by Highest Grade Completed, CAR:
April 2018
Agriculture employs the most
- By industry, the Agriculture employed the most with 43.7 percent, followed by Services Sector with 38.7 percent and Industry with 17.5 percent.
- By sub-industry, Agriculture and Forestry continued to be the biggest employer in the region with 43.5 percent share in April 2018.
- With 11.1 percent of the total employed persons in April 2018, the wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles ranked as the second largest sub-industry group.
- Manufacturing shared only 3.8 percent of the total employed persons in the region in April 2018 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: April 2017 and April 2018
Elementary occupations comprise 31.0%
- Among the occupation groups, elementary occupations were the largest group of employed persons in CAR comprising 31.0 percent of the total regional employment in April 2018. This increased by 5.6 percentage points compared to same period last year.
- Skilled agricultural, forestry and fishery workers ranked as the second largest occupation group with 25.4 percent of the total employed persons in April 2018. This group decreased by 0.3 percentage points from April 2017.
- With a 10.4 percent of the total employed in April 2018, managers made up the third largest occupation group.
- The rest of the major occupation groups comprised 33.2 percent of the total employed persons in the entire labor force of the region.
Table 3. Distribution of Employed Persons by Major Occupation Groups in CAR:
April 2017 and April 2018
Underemployment at 14.2%
- The underemployment rate of CAR was 14.2 percent of which 8.3 percent of the underemployed persons already worked 40 hours per week and over or those invisibly underemployed.
- Meanwhile, those who work less than 40 hours a week or those visibly underemployed accounted for 5.9 percent of the total underemployed population in the region.
Unemployment decreases to 3.3%
- Unemployment rate in the region decreased by 0.8 percentage point, from 4.1 percent in April 2017 to 3.3 percent in April 2018.
- The unemployed male population accounted for 55.2 percent of the total unemployed persons in the region, while 44.8 percent were unemployed females.
Table 4. Distribution of Unemployed Persons by Sex in CAR: April 2018
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.
