AGRICULTURE and forestry sector remains the biggest employer in the Cordillera region with 43.9 percent or around 336,000 of the 765,000 employed individual based on result of the January 2016 Labor Force Survey recently released by the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles ranked as the second labor sub–industry at 12.4 percent of the total employed persons in January 2016, followed by construction and manufacturing at 7.7 and 2.2 percent respectively.
In terms of occupation groups, laborers and unskilled workers remain to be the largest group of employed workers in Cordillera at 33.3 percent followed by farmers, forestry workers and fishermen. Officials of government and special interest organizations, corporate executives, managers, managing proprietors and supervisors meanwhile is at 21 and 13.6 percent respectively of the 765,000 based on January 2016 workforce.
The survey shows there were around 44,000 professionals, 39,000 trade and related workers and 33,000 clerks in Cordillera during the period.
The 765,000 workforce of Cordillera during the survey ranked as the highest among the regions in the country in terms of labor force participation as it comprises 67 percent of the around 1,194,000 population of 15 years old and over.
At the national level, the total labor force is 42.52 million, or around 63.3 percent of the 67,160,000 Filipinos ages 15 years old and above.
The PSA's Labor Force Survey provides a snapshot or a quick view of the economically active persons in the country at a particular point or reference period and it aims to monitor the changes in the employment status of persons, both employed and unemployed, in the working age population. (Carlito Dar/PIA–CAR)