The annual employment rate for 2012 was estimated at 93.0 percent and the annual unemployment rate, at 7.0 percent. Meanwhile, the underemployment rate was 20.0 percent.

The total employed persons reached 37.6 million (Table 1). Of this number, more than half (52.6%) were in the services sector with those engaged in wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles comprising the largest group in this sector (18.3% of the total employed). One–third (33.4%) of the total employed were laborers and unskilled workers. Those who were wage and salary workers numbered 21.5 million, making up 57.2 percent of the total employed persons. Of the wage and salary workers, 16.4 million worked in private establishments making up 43.6 percent of the total employed persons.

 

About 23.2 million persons or 61.7 percent of the total employed persons worked for 40 hours and over. Those who worked for less than 40 hours were about 13.9 million or 37.0 percent of the total employed persons. The underemployed persons or those employed persons who express the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or to have additional job, or to have a new job with longer working hours was estimated at 7.5 million (Table 2). This is equivalent to an underemployment rate of 20.0 percent at the national level (Tables 2 and 4). Among regions, the Bicol Region had the highest underemployment rate (34.4%), followed by Northern Mindanao (28.6%) and Zamboanga Peninsula (27.7%).

 

The unemployed persons numbered 2.8 million  persons resulting in an unemployment rate of 7.0 percent (Tables 3 and 4). Half of the unemployed were in the age group 15 to 24 years. By education, among the unemployed, high school graduates comprised 33.3 percent, college graduates, 19.6 percent; and elementary graduates, 7.4 percent.

 

The number of new entrants was estimated at 912 thousand, accounting for 2.3 percent of the total labor force population of 40.4 million (Table 5). The employed persons who were new entrants totaled 672 thousand or 73.6 percent of the total new entrants, while the unemployed new entrants, 241 thousand or 26.4 percent. More than 29 percent of the total new entrants were high school graduates while about one-fourth (24.4%) were college graduates.

 

(Sgd.) CARMELITA N. ERICTA

       Administrator

The annual labor and employment statistics presented in this release for 2012 used the average estimates of labor and employment indicators from the four Labor Force Survey (LFS) rounds conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on a quarterly basis. The use of the average estimates of annual LFS data was based on the Official Methodology for Generating Annual Labor and Employment Estimates per NSCB Resolution No. 9, Series of 2009 approved on the 6th day of July 2009.
 

The methodology uses the following formula to estimate employment, unemployment, underemployment and labor force participation rates:

Z_i= ( Σ_j X_ij / Σ_j Y_kj ) x 100

where

Z_i = annual estimate for the rate of i where i refers to employment, unemployment, underemployment and labor force participation
 

X_ij= estimate for the population of i for the jth round of LFS where

i refers to employed, unemployed, underemployed and labor force, and

j refers to the four rounds of LFS: January, April, July and October

Y_kj = estimate for the population of k for the jth round of LFS where

k refers to labor force, employed persons and persons 15 years old and over, and

j refers to the four rounds of LFS: January, April, July and October

As stated in the NSCB Resolution No. 9, the methodology was deemed the most appropriate among methodologies reviewed and evaluated for the following reasons: a) it captures the labor and employment situation in all four quarters of the year; b) the generation of cross tabulations (e.g., by class of workers, by occupation group) is more feasible for producer of estimates; c) it is the closest method for estimating the number of persons who work four times for the entire year; and d) these estimates are being used by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and its attached agencies and regional offices for planning/formulation of intervention programs.

 

Source:  Income and Employment Statistics Division

   Household Statistics Department

   National Statistics Office

   Manila, Philippines