City of Las Piñas registers the highest employment rate in 2020

In 2020, the City of Las Piñas has the highest employment rate among the 17 cities/municipality in NCR with 92.8 percent.   The employment rate of the City of Las Piñas in 2020 is 4.4 percentage points higher than the NCR figure of 88.3 percent and 3.0 percentage points higher than the national figure of 89.7 percent.  In comparison, the employment rate of the City of Las Piñas in 2020 was 1.4 percentage points lower than the city’s employment rate in 2019 at 94.2 percent.  

In addition to the City of Las Piñas, six (6) more cities registered an employment rate that is more than or equal to 90.0 percent.  The City of San Juan (92.2%), the City of Navotas (92.0%) together with the City of Las Piñas were among the top three cities with the highest employment rate in 2020. Moreover, of the 17 cities/municipality of NCR, 11 cities and the municipality of Pateros registered a higher employment rate than the regional average.  (Figure 1 and Table 1)

Figure 1. Employment Rate by Highly Urbanized City/Municipality in NCR: 2020

Source: Philippine Statistics Authority, 2020 Labor Force Survey.

Pasay City has the steepest decline in employment rate in 2020

Employment rates in all 17 cities/municipality in NCR declined in 2020 compared to the 2018 and 2019 figures.  It may be recalled that the labor market was adversely affected by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related closure of establishments in 2020.  Among the 17 cities/municipality, Pasay City experienced the steepest decline in employment rate with  -11.0 percentage points or from 95.5 percent employment rate in 2019 to 84.5 percent in 2020.  Similarly, the City of Caloocan also experienced a sharp decrease in the employment rate with -10.3 percentage points between 2019 (94.5%) and 2020 (84.3%).  In contrast, the City of San Juan experienced the least decrease in the employment rate of  -1.2 percentage points for the period 2019 to 2020. (Figure 2)

Figure 2. Percentage Point Decrease in Employment Rates by Highly Urbanized City/Municipality in NCR: 2019 - 2020

Source: Philippine Statistics Authority, 2019 and 2020 Labor Force Survey

City of Caloocan has the highest unemployment rate in 2020

In 2020, 11 out of the 17 cities/municipality in NCR registered unemployment rates equal to or greater than 10.0 percent with the City of Caloocan garnering the topmost with 15.7 percent.  Next to the City of Caloocan was Pasay City with 15.5 percent followed by the City of Mandaluyong with a 13.4 percent unemployment rate in 2020. (Figure 3 and Table 3)

Figure 3. Unemployment Rates by Highly Urbanized City/Municipality in NCR: 2020

     Source: Philippine Statistics Authority, 2020 Labor Force Survey

City of Marikina has the highest underemployment rate in 2020

Among the 17 cities/municipality in NCR, 11 cities registered an increase in underemployment rate from 2019 to 2020.  The City of Markina posted the highest underemployment rate in 2020 with 20.5 percent.  The city also posted the highest increase in the underemployment rate of 12.4 percentage points from 2019 (8.1%) to 2020 (20.5%).  Quezon City ranked second with the highest underemployment rate of 15.1 percent followed by the City of Malabon with 11.5 percent.  Both cities also posted an increase in the underemployment rate from 2019 to 2020.

On the other hand, the City of Las Piñas recorded the least underemployment rate with 1.2 percent in 2020.  City of Las Piñas also recorded a decrease of -2.4 percentage points in the underemployment rate from 2019 to 2020.  (Figure 4 and Table 4)

Figure 4. Underemployment Rate by Highly Urbanized City/Municipality in NCR: 2020

Source: Philippine Statistics Authority, 2020 Labor Force Survey

Sgd.
PACIANO B.DIZON
Regional Director

TECHNICAL NOTES

The Labor Force Survey (LFS) is a nationwide quarterly survey of households conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) to gather data on the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the population.

On 21 December 2020, the PSA Board approved the PSA Board Resolution No. 8 Series of 2020, Approval of the Conduct of the Monthly LFS and Generation of Monthly Labor and Employment Statistics.  Starting February 2021, monthly LFS has been conducted in between quarterly or regular LFS to generate national level labor and employment statistics from the Survey.

The methodology for the computation of the annual estimate of labor and employment indicators from the monthly LFS was based on PSA Board Resolution No. 14 Series of 2021 – Adopting the General Method for Annualized Estimate for the Labor Force Survey 2021 and Beyond.

The reference period for this survey is "past week" or the past seven (7) days preceding the date of visit of the enumerator or field interviewer.

The concepts and definitions used in the survey can be found in PSA-ISH Bulletins and is also available at https://psa.gov.ph/content/technical-notes-labor-force-survey-lfs. Some of the concepts and definitions are given below:

In the Labor Force or Economically Active Population refers to persons 15 years old and over who are either employed or unemployed.

Employed refers to persons in the labor force who are reported either as at work or with a job or business although not at work. Persons at work are those who did some work, even for an hour during the reference period.

Unemployed refers to persons in the labor force who are reported as: 

1) without work; 

2) currently available for work; and 

3) seeking work or not seeking work due to the following reasons: 

     i) belief that no work is available, or 

     ii) awaiting results of previous job application, or 

     iii) because of temporary illness or disability, or

     iv) bad weather, or 

     v) waiting for rehire or job recall.

Underemployed refers to employed persons who express the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job or an additional job or have a new job with longer working hours.

Employment Rate is the proportion of employed persons to the total labor force.

Unemployment Rate is the proportion of unemployed persons to the total labor force.

Underemployment Rate is the proportion of underemployed persons to total employed persons.