Eastern Visayas registers 95.6 percent employment rate in 2017

By PSA-8
January 30, 2018

TACLOBAN CITY – The annual employment rate in Eastern Visayas slightly increased to 95.6 percent in 2017 from 95.5 percent in 2016, ranking sixth among the regions with high employment rate in the country (see table below). Employment rate is the proportion of employed persons to total labor force.

Out of the estimated 3.0 million population 15 years old and over in 2017, about 1.9 million were economically active or in the labor force. This number translates to an annual Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) of 60.3 percent. This figure is 1.8 percentage points lower compared to the previous year’s LFPR of 62.1 percent. Among the regions, Eastern Visayas registered the sixth lowest annual LFPR.

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 402 thousand. This is equal to an underemployment rate of 22.6 percent, lower than the 28.3 percent recorded a year ago. The region had the fourth highest underemployment rate in the country.

Meanwhile, about 82 thousand persons in the labor force were unemployed. This translates to an unemployment rate of 4.4 percent, slightly lower than the 4.5 percent rate recorded in 2016. Eastern Visayas ranked sixth among the the regions with low employment rate.

The preliminary results of the Annual Labor and Employment Estimates for are based on the average of the four (4) Labor Force Survey (LFS) rounds (January, April, July and October).