Results from the April 2013 Labor Force Survey (LFS)

 ^1/ Estimates for April 2013 are preliminary and may change.             

^2/ Population 15 years and over is from the 2000 Census-based population projections. 

The results of the April 2013 Labor Force Survey (LFS) revealed an employment rate of 92.5 percent.  In the same month of the previous year, that is April 2012, the employment rate was estimated at 93.1 percent.  The drop in the employment rate is due to the decline in employment in the agriculture sector, with the number of agricultural workers falling from an estimated 12.468 million in April 2012 to 11.844 million in April 2013, or by about 624 thousand workers (Table 1).

The total number of employed persons in April 2013 is estimated at 37.819 million compared to 37.840 million in April 2012, or a decrease of around 21 thousand workers.  While employment in the agriculture sector had dropped, employment in the industry sector and services sector grew by 3.8 percent or 224 thousand workers, and by 1.9 percent or 380 thousand workers, respectively, from April 2012 to April 2013 (Table 1).

Workers in the services sector remained the largest group of workers, making up more than half (52.6%) of the total employed.  Workers in agriculture sector comprised the second largest group, accounting for 31.3 percent of the total employed.  Workers in the industry sector made up 16.1 percent (Table 1).

Among the workers in the services sector, those engaged in wholesale and retail trade or in the repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles made up the largest percentage.  Such workers accounted for 34.6 percent of the total employed in the services sector in April 2013.  In the industry sector, workers in the manufacturing subsector accounted for the largest percentage, making up 52.3 percent of the total workers in this subsector (Table 2).

Among the various occupation groups, the laborers and unskilled workers comprised the biggest group making up one-third (32.6%) of the total employed persons in April 2013.  Officials of the government and special interest organizations, corporate executives, managers, managing proprietors and supervisors were the second biggest group with 16.0 percent share.  The farmers, forestry workers and fishermen made up the third largest occupation group accounting for 13.1 percent of the total employed (Table 1).

There were two occupation groups that recorded a significant drop in size in April 2013. These were the farmers, forestry workers and fishermen whose number decreased to approximately 4.960 million in April 2013 from 5.398 million in April 2012, or a decrease of about 438 thousand workers; and the laborers and unskilled workers whose number dropped  by approximately 384 thousand.  By comparison, the number of wage workers, particularly those in the government and private establishments increased markedly.  These are the officials in the government and special interest organizations, corporate executives, managers, managing proprietors, clerical workers, service workers and shop and market workers (Table 1).

Employed persons fall into any of these categories: wage and salary workers, self-employed workers without any paid employee, employers in own family-operated farm or business, and unpaid family workers.  Wage and salary workers are those who work for private households, private establishments, government or government-controlled corporations, and those who work with pay in own family-operated farm or business.  In April 2013, 57.5 percent of the total employed population were wage and salary workers.  In April 2012, wage and salary workers made up 55.8 percent of the total employed.  Among the wage and salary workers in April 2013, those who worked for private establishments comprised the largest percentage (44.3% of the total employed).  Those working for the government or government-controlled corporations accounted for 8.1 percent of the total employed, and those working for private households, 4.8 percent (Table 1).

In April 2013, self-employed workers without any paid employees accounted for 28.6 percent of the total employed, while the unpaid family workers comprised 10.9 percent.  Employers in own family-operated farm or business made up only 3.0 percent.  These three classes of workers dropped in number in April 2013.  Among them, the unpaid workers in own family-operated farm or business had the largest drop of approximately 398 thousand workers, followed by the self-employed without any paid employee with a drop of about 143 thousand workers.  By contrast, workers in private establishments increased by 530 thousand (Table 1).

Employed persons are classified as either full-time workers or part-time workers.  Full-time workers are those who work for 40 hours or more while part-time workers work for less than 40 hours.

Of the total employed persons in April 2013, 63.5 percent were working full time, while 34.7 percent were working part time.  By comparison, in April 2012, full-time workers comprised 55.1 percent of the total employed, while part-time workers, 42.8 percent.  The proportion of full-time workers, and also the mean hours worked per week had increased in all industry sectors.  The workers in the services sector had the highest mean hours worked in the week prior to the survey (47.1 hours) (Table 3).

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 are considered under-employed.  The number of under-employed persons in April 2013 was estimated at 7.252 million placing the under-employment rate at 19.2 percent.  In April 2012, under-employment rate was recorded at 19.3 percent with the number of under-employed estimated at 7.312 million (Table 4).

The visibly under-employed persons or those working for less than 40 hours in April 2013 accounted for 53.8 percent of the total under-employed, which is lower than the percentage recorded in April 2012 (63.9%).  Of the total under-employed in April 2013, 42.2 percent were working in the services sector and 40.9 percent were in the agriculture sector.  The under-employed in the industry sector accounted for 16.9 percent (Table 4).

Among the regions, the National Capital Region (NCR) and CALABARZON had recorded an employment rate below 90.0 percent.  In terms of under-employment, Region V, Region X and Caraga had rates of 30 percent or higher (Table 5).   

The unemployment rate in April 2013 was estimated at 7.5 percent, which is higher than the estimate for April 2012 (6.9%).  The NCR and CALABARZON posted rates of unemployment higher than 10.0 percent (Table 5).

 There were more males (61.4%) than females (38.6%) among the unemployed.  The age group 15-24 made up 48.2 percent of the total unemployed, while the age group 25-34, 30.9 percent.  By education, about one-fifth (21.3%) of the unemployed were college graduates, 14.6 percent were college undergraduates, and 31.7 percent were high school graduates (Table 6).                       

CARMELITA N.  ERICTA

Administrator

Technical Notes

• Starting July 2003, the Labor Force Survey (LFS) adopted the 2003 Master Sample Design, with a sample size of approximately 50,000 households.
• Starting in the January 2012 LFS, the codes for industry adopted the 2009 Philippine Standard Industrial Classification (PSIC).  Prior to this, codes for industry used the 1994 PSIC.
• Starting in the January 2012 LFS, more detailed categories for highest grade completed used in the 2010 Census of Population and Housing (CPH) were also adopted.
• Starting in the January 2012 LFS, a question on whether a household member is a graduate of a technical vocational course was asked for each person 15 years or older.
• Starting April 2005, the new unemployment definition was adopted per NSCB Resolution Number 15 dated October 20, 2004.  As indicated in the said resolution, the unemployed include all persons who are 15 years and over as of their last birthday and are reported as:  (1) without work and currently available for work and seeking work; or (2) without work and currently available for work but not seeking work for the following reasons:

1.      Tired/believed no work available

2.      Awaiting results of previous job application

3.      Temporary illness/disability

4.      Bad weather

5.      Waiting for rehire/job recall

• Starting with the January 2007 LFS round, the population projections based on the 2000 Census of Population and Housing was adopted to generate the labor force statistics.  This is in compliance with NSCB Resolution No. 1 series of 2005 entitled “Adoption of the Methodology Used in Generating the 2000 Census of Population and Housing-Based National Population Projections”.