Labor Force Survey

The Labor Force Survey (LFS) is a nationwide survey of households conducted regularly to gather data on the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of the population. It is primarily geared towards the estimation of the levels of employment and unemployment in the country. It is conducted every first month of the quarter in selected areas in the Philippines.

Labor Force Survey Releases

Sixty-four percent of the population 15 years old and over were in the labor force
In January 2025, Davao Region's total population 15 years old and over was estimated at 3.86 million. The Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) in January 2025 was posted at 64.2 percent, higher than the reported LFPR in January 2024 at 60.9 percent and October 2024 at 63.7 percent (see Table 1). The reported LFPR in January 2025 translates to a total of 2.48 million Davaoeños aged 15 years old and over who were in the labor force, or those who were either employed or unemployed. The number of individuals aged 15 years old and over who were in the labor force was 2.32 million in January 2024 and 2.46 million in October 2024.

Among the 17 Regions, BARMM reported the highest LFPR at 72.5 percent, while Bicol Region has the lowest rate at 59.1 percent. Nine regions have lower LFPR than the national estimate of 63.9 percent: Central Luzon (63.7%), Central Visayas (63.4%), Western Visayas (63.4%), Eastern Visayas (63.4%), Ilocos Region (63.2%), NCR (63.2%), Zamboanga Peninsula (62.5%), CALABARZON (62.4), and Bicol Region (59.1%). BARMM has the highest increase in terms of percentage points from 64.4 percent LFPR in January 2024 to 72.5 percent in January 2025.

Davao Region’s employment rate at 97.1 percent
Employment rate or the proportion of employed persons of the total labor force in Davao Region was at 97.1 percent in January 2025. This was higher than the employment rate in January 2024 at 96.4 percent. In October 2024, the employment rate was estimated at 97.5 percent. In terms of levels, the number of employed persons in January 2025 was recorded at 2.41 million. This was higher than the number of employed persons in the same month last year at 2.24 million. In October 2024, the number of employed persons was estimated at 2.40 million.

Davao Region's employment rate for January 2025 was higher than the national estimate of 95.7 percent. Eleven other regions recorded higher employment rate compared to the national employment rate: Zamboanga Peninsula (97.7%), SOCCSKSARGEN (97.6%), Eastern Visayas (97.6%), Central Visayas (97.2%), CAR (97.1%), BARMM (96.6%), Cagayan Valley (96.5%), Central Luzon (96.1%), Caraga (96.0%), Western Visayas (96.0%) and Northern Mindanao (96.0%). Eastern Visayas showed the highest increase of 3.0 percentage points from January 2024 at 94.5 percent to January 2025 at 97.6 percent.

Unemployment rate was recorded at 2.9 percent
Davao Region’s unemployment rate in January 2025 decreased to 2.9 percent, from 3.6 percent in January 2024. The unemployment rate in October 2025 was estimated at 2.5 percent. In terms of magnitude, the number of unemployed individuals in January 2025 was posted at 72 thousand. This was lower than the reported number of unemployed persons in January 2024 at 84 thousand. The number of unemployed individuals in October 2024 was posted at 62 thousand.

Five regions of the country reporting higher unemployment rate than the national estimate of 4.3 percent in January 202 were Bicol Region (6.5%), CALABARZON (6.1%), NCR (5.4%), Ilocos Region (5.0%), and MIMAROPA (4.4%).

Davao Region’s Underemployment rate is at 3.3 percent
Underemployment rate of Davao Region in January 2025 decreased to 3.3 percent, from 11.6 percent in January 2025. In October 2024, the underemployment rate was estimated at 4.3 percent. In terms of magnitude, about 79 thousand of the 2.41 million employed individuals expressed 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 hours of work in January 2025.

SOCCSKSARGEN has the highest underemployment rate with 29.5 percent, 16.2 percentage points higher than the national estimate of 13.3 percent. Nine other regions with underemployment rate higher than the national estimate were: Bicol Region (29.0%), MIMAROPA (25.0%), Cagayan Valley (18.0%), Eastern Visayas (16.1%), Northern Mindanao (15.7%), CALABARZON (14.5%), Ilocos Region (14.5%), Western Visayas (13.5%), and Caraga (13.4%).

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 until 2020. Starting February 2021, the LFS was conducted monthly in response to the need for high-frequency data to monitor the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The survey is designed to provide statistics on levels and trends of employment, unemployment, and underemployment for the country, as a whole, and for each of the administrative regions.
The reference period for this survey is the “past week” referring to the past seven days preceding the date of visit of the enumerator or the field interviewer.
The population projections based on the 2015 Population Census (POPCEN 2015) has been adopted to generate the labor force statistics. For comparability, population projections based on the POPCEN 2015 was likewise used in the October 2019 labor force statistics.
Starting April 2012 LFS, the codes for industry adopted the 2009 Philippine Standard Industrial Classification (PSIC). Prior to this, codes for industry used the 1994 PSIC. The 2012 Philippine Standard Occupational Classification (PSOC) was adopted starting April 2016. The 1992 PSOC had been used prior to these rounds.
In the April 2017 round of the LFS, Computer Aided Personal Interviewing (CAPI) using Tablet was utilized in the enumeration.
Overseas Filipino Workers are not considered part of the labor force in the Philippines. Hence, in the LFS, data on economic characteristics of household members who are overseas workers are not collected. In the LFS reports, they are excluded in the estimation of the size of working population, that is, population aged 15 years and older, and in the estimation of the labor force.