ACCORDING to the October 2023 Preliminary Employment report by the Philippine Statistics Authority-Davao Region (PSA-Davao), 64 percent of around 3.780 million Dabawenyos who are 15 years old and above were part of the labor workforce. This means that 2.42 million Dabawenyos within the age range are working.
The number is 1.8 percentage points higher compared to the same period in 2022, which is 62.1 percent of the 3.719 million Dabawenyos who are 15 years old and above and working. This means that a total of 105,000 more Dabawenyos are in the labor workforce compared to the same period in 2022.
Meanwhile, 97.1 percent of the workforce in the Davao Region is employed as of October 2023. This is an estimated 187,000 more Dabawenyos employed compared to July 2023.
The region also posted an unemployment rate of 2.9 percent, lower compared to July 2023’s unemployment rate of 3.5 percent and 1.3 percentage points lower than the estimated 4.2 percent in the national setting.
On the other hand, Dabawenyos reported to be underemployed in the same period was lower by 6.5 percentage points than in July 2023’s 13.8 percent.
However, despite the figure for both unemployment and underemployment, the Davao Region remains the top region in the Philippines with the highest employment rate for October last year, higher than the national estimate of 95.8 percent.
There were nine regions with higher employment rates than the national employment rate: Soccsksargen (96.8 percent), Barmm (96.7 percent), Central Luzon (96.7 percent), CAR (96.7 percent), Caraga (96.7 percent), Western Visayas (96.6 percent), Cagayan Valley (96.3 percent), Mimaropa (96.2 percent), and Central Visayas (96.0 percent) have higher employment rates than the national average. The largest gain, 2.0 percentage points, was seen in the Bicol Region, which went from 93.8 percent in July 2023 to 95.8 percent in October 2023.
Currently, in terms of LFPR, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Barmm) tallied the highest labor force among 17 Regions in the country with 74.0 percent while Zamboanga Peninsula has the lowest rate at 59.7 percent.
The PSA central office alongside its regional statistical services offices has been using the Labor Force Survey (LFS) by interviewing families on a quarterly and monthly basis and to collect such data on the demographic and socioeconomic features of the population with nationwide coverage.
In the 2020 PSA census, Davao Region remains the 7th most populous region in the country with close to 6 million inhabitants.
The region comprises 43 municipalities, 1162 barangays, and 11 congressional districts. DEF