Eastern Visayas registers 95.4% employment rate in April 2018

By PSA-8
June 18, 2018

TACLOBAN CITY – Employment Rate (ER) in Eastern Visayas in April 2018 was estimated at 95.4%, ranking fourth among the regions with high employment rate in the country (Table 1). This figure is lower than the 96.2% ER recorded in April 2017. Employment rate is the proportion of employed persons to total labor force.

Out of the estimated 3.2 million population 15 years old and over in April 2018, about 2.0 million were economically active or in the labor force. This number translates to a Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) of 63.2%. This figure is 1.0 percentage point lower compared with the 64.2% LFPR in the same period a year ago. Among the regions, Eastern Visayas registered the fourth highest 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 452 thousand. This is equal to an underemployment rate of 23.8%, lower than the 24.0% recorded in the same period last year. The region had the third highest underemployment rate in the country.

Meanwhile, about 92 thousand persons in the labor force were unemployed. This translates to an unemployment rate of 4.6%, higher than the 3.8% rate recorded in April 2017. Eastern Visayas ranked fourth among the regions with low employment rate.

Data were based on the preliminary estimates released by the Philippine Statistics Authority from the Labor Force Survey (LFS) conducted in April 2018.