Philippines
Title of the survey:
The Labour Force Survey
Organization responsible for the survey:
Planning and conduct of the survey:
National Statistics Office.
Analysis and publication of the results:
National Statistics Office.
Topics covered:
Employment, unemployment, underemployment, hours of work, duration of employment, discouraged workers, occasional workers, industry, occupation (primary and other jobs), status in employment, educational level, usual activity and other topics such as new entrants, basis of payment and basic pay per day, etc.
Coverage of the survey:
Geographical:
Whole country - national, regional, provincial/key cities, urban and rural areas.
Population groups:
All persons living in private households.
Not considered as members of a household are:
- persons or family members who are inmates of institutions, such as penal colonies/farms, detention camps, homes for the aged, orphanages, mental institutions, tuberculosis sanitaria, leprosaria, etc. and who are not expected to return within 30 days;
- members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines if they have been away from their usual place of residence for more than 30 days;
- Filipino/as whose usual place of residence is in a foreign country, who have been /will be in the Philippines for less than one year from date of arrival;
- citizens of foreign countries and members of their families who are in the country as tourists, students, on business or for employment provided they expect to stay in the country for one year or less from date of arrival;
- foreign ambassadors, ministers, consuls, or other diplomatic representatives and members of their families, regardless of their length of stay in the country;
- citizens of foreign countries who are chiefs or officials of international organizations such as United Nations etc. and members of their families, regardless of their length of stay in the country.
Availability of estimates from other sources for the excluded areas/groups:
Not available.
Groups covered by the survey but excluded from the published results:
Overseas Contract Workers.
Periodicity:
Conduct of the survey:
Quarterly.
Publication of results:
Quarterly.
Reference periods:
Employment:
Past week (moving reference period).
Seeking work:
Past week (moving reference period).
Availability for work:
Past week (moving reference period).
Concepts and definitions:
Employment:
All persons aged 15 years and over as of their last birthday who, during the reference week, did any work for pay or profit, or unpaid work on a farm or business enterprise operated by a related member of the same household for at least one hour, resulting in the production of goods or services, as well as those who had a job or business but were absent from work due to temporary illness, vacation or leave, temporary lay-off without pay and unpaid leave initiated by the employer, strike, reduction in economic activity, etc., and those who are expected to report for work or to start operation of a farm or business enterprise within two weeks from the date of interview.
It also includes:
- full and part-time workers seeking other work during the reference week;
- persons who performed some work for pay or profit during the reference week, but were subject to compulsory schooling, were retired and receiving a pension; were full or part-time students working full or part-time, were registered as job seekers at an employment office or receiving unemployment benefits;
- pre-employment arrangement apprentices or paid trainees;
- unpaid family workers at work and temporarily absent from work;
- private domestic servants;
- members of producers' co-operatives;
- persons doing civilian service equivalent to military service;
- persons engaged in production of goods for sale or for family consumption (gardening in at least 100 square meters of solid patches).
Unemployment:
All persons 15 years and over as of their last birthday who did not work at all for pay or profit or as unpaid family workers during the reference period, but were reported wanting and looking for work. Also included are persons without a job or business who reported not seeking work because of the belief that no work was available, or due to bad weather, minor illness, pending job applications/job recall, waiting for job interviews, etc. Persons on indefinite lay-off without pay, seasonal workers awaiting seasonal work, and the following categories of people are also included: a) persons making an effort to start a business or private practice; b) persons seeking and/or available for work but who were retired and receiving a pension;
c) full and part-time students seeking full or part-time work; d) unpaid apprentices and trainees;
e) participants in employment promotion schemes.
Underemployment:
Time-related underemployment:
Employed persons who expressed 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.
Inadequate employment situations:
Not applicable.
Hours of work:
Actual number of hours worked in all jobs by a person during the reference week.
Employment-related income:
Income from paid employment:
From January 2001 onwards, following the introduction of the new survey questionnaire: basic pay per day.
Income from self-employment:
Not applicable.
Informal sector:
This is not clearly segregated. Employed persons are classified by “class of worker” (see under Status in Employment below), including the informal sector, with reference to main job/occupation only.
Usual activity:
The main activity/usual occupation refers to the kind of job or business which persons were engaged in most of the time (more than 6 months or that which had the longest duration) during the last 12 months.
Classifications:
Branch of economic activity (industry):
Title of the classification:
1994 Philippine Standard Industrial Classification (PSIC).
Population groups classified by industry:
Employed persons.
Number of groups used for coding:
9 major divisions and one code for activities not adequately defined.
Links to ISIC:
ISIC-Rev.2, at major division level only, except for Division 6 which excludes restaurants and hotels. These are included in Division 9 (code 98).
Occupation:
Title of the classification:
1992 Philippine Standard Occupational Classification (PSOC).
Population groups classified by occupation:
Employed persons.
Number of groups used for coding:
9 major groups.
Links to ISCO:
ISCO-68, at 2-digit level, except for major group 3. (ISCO code 3.1 - government executive officials are included in PSOC code 2.0 - legislative officials, government administrators and government executives.)
Status in employment:
Title of the classification:
Class of Workers.
Population groups classified by status in employment:
Employed persons.
Groups used for classification:
Seven groups: 0. Worked for private household, 1. Worked for private establishments, 2. Worked for Government /Government corporation, 3. Self-employed without any employee, 4. Employer in own family-operated farm or business, 5. Worked with pay on own family-operated farm or business, 6. Worked without pay on own family-operated farm or business.
Links to ICSE:
ICSE-1993. Codes 0, 1 and 2 above, refer to ICSE code 1.
Education:
Title of the classification:
Philippine Standard Classification of Education (PSCED).
Population groups classified by education:
Employed and unemployed persons.
Groups used for classification:
Seven groups: 0.No grade completed, 1.Elementary undergraduate, 2.Elementary graduate, 3. High school undergraduate, 4.High school graduate, 5.College undergraduate, 6.College graduate (specification of highest degree completed and field of study).
Links to ISCED:
Not available.
Sample size and design:
Ultimate sampling unit:
Household.
Sample size (ultimate sampling units):
Expanded sample size is 3,416 barangays/enumeration areas (EA) or 40,992 households, for reliable provincial level estimates; Core sample size is 2,247 EAs or 26,964 households, at the regional/national level. Use of expanded or core samples depends on budget.
Overall sampling fraction:
Approximately 1/250 for urban and 1/400 for rural.
Sample frame:
Constructed basically from the results of the 1995 Population Census (POPCEN). The list of barangays serves as the frame for the first stage. The list of EAs in each selected barangays serves as the frame for the second stage, while the list of households in each selected EA serves as the third stage sampling frame.
Updating of the sample:
The master sample of EAs is divided into 4 systematic 25 per cent subsamples, identified as subsamples 1, 2, 3, and 4. Listing of households (ideally done yearly or one subsample each quarter) was done in subsample 4 only due to budget limitations. New listings gather information on name of household head, nickname of household head and address.
Rotation:
Scheme:
About 25 per cent (one subsample) of the sample households are dropped in each sample EA every quarter and replaced by a new set of sample households from the respective sample areas.
Percentage of units remaining in the sample for two consecutive survey rounds:
75 per cent.
Maximum number of interviews per sample unit:
As designed it should be 4 times, but to accommodate all household-based survey requirements, it can be higher than 4.
Length of time for complete renewal of the sample:
Generally one year.
Field work:
Type of interview:
Personal interview.
Number of ultimate sampling units per sample area:
Twelve households per sample barangay.
Duration of field work:
Total:
Three weeks (for October 2001, from 8-31 October).
Per sample area:
Not available.
Survey organization:
The regular Statistical Coordination Office, with additional statistical researchers.
Number of field staff:
For October 2001: 569 field staff and 285 hired statistical researchers.
Substitution of non-responding ultimate sampling units:
Yes, replacement is done for newly rotated panel where dwelling unit/household cannot be located.
Estimation and adjustments:
Total non-response rate:
4.6 per cent for October 2001.
Adjustment for total non-response:
Yes.
Imputation for item non-response:
No.
Adjustment for areas/population not covered:
Not available.
Adjustment for undercoverage:
Yes.
Adjustment for overcoverage:
Not available.
Adjustment for seasonal variations:
Yes, using the X-II Arima method for levels of employment, unemployment and labour force by sex only.
History of the survey:
Title and date of the first survey:
Philippine Statistical Survey of Households, 1956.
Significant changes or revisions:
1962: New sampling design adopted, based on the 1960 (POPCEN) results, enabling publication of urban and rural classification at the national level, up to 1969.
1971 (March): New design providing estimates of employment and population characteristics at the regional level. Frequency of the survey increased to quarterly.
1975: New survey, revised sampling design and concepts used for labour force data. Biggest change is the reference period goes from past week to past quarter.
1976: The integration of the Agricultural Survey and the Labour Force Survey with the first survey of the integrated scheme conducted in November. All estimates from the household surveys conducted used the projected population to control fluctuations in the levels of estimates.
1987: The reference period for employment statistics reverts back to the “past week”. The first quarter round of 1987 was the last series to use the “past quarter” reference period.
1996: From July 1996, new sample design based on the 1995 Census of Population results.
2000: From October 2000, estimates are based on the 1995 Census Population Projection.
2001: From January, revisions of the survey questionnaire, with the inclusion of questions on other jobs, new entrants, basis of payment and basic pay per day, and implementation of 1994 industrial and 1992 occupational classifications.
Documentation and dissemination:
Documentation:
Survey results:
ISH Bulletin (quarterly).
Survey methodology:
ISH Bulletin (quarterly).
Dissemination:
Time needed for initial release of survey results:
About two months (October 2001 results were released on 15 December 2001).
Advance information of public about date of initial release:
Yes.
Availability of unpublished data upon request:
Yes.
Availability of data in machine-readable form:
Yes.
Website:
http://www.census.gov.ph/.