ally at double-digit levels. Otherwise, it has been estimated at lower rates during the other quarters.
7.5. Breaking down total employed workers by class of worker, wage and salaried workers (about 45%) outnumber own-account workers by 5-10 percent. By number of hours worked, two out of three work at least 40 hours or more.
7.6. The underemployed number about 18 to 23 percent of total employed, over halfof which are in agriculture, fishery and forestry and mostly in the rural areas.
Methodological Issues
7.7. The breaks in the series due to certain changes such as change in reference period, sampling design, sampling frame, etc. make it difficult to study time series data.
7.8. The non-conformity of concepts and definitions used with those which are internationally recommended by the International Labor Organization (ILO) making the estimates generated non-comparable with other countries who adhere to the ILO recommendations. Among these are:
7.81. The non-inclusion of the availability criterion in the Philippine definition of unemployment generates a higher unemployment rate than when such criterion is considered in the definition. This difference between the two definitions is viewed as one of the reasons for the contrast between the high unemployment rate of the Philippines and the low unemployment rate of most other Asian countries22.
7.82. Future starts (that is, persons with a new job to begin within two weeks from the date of interview) are included among the employed instead of being unemployed.
7.83. There are two sub-categories of economic activities listed in the System of National Accounts (SNA) that are not included in the Philippine LFS, namely, (1) own-account processing of primary products for own-consumption and (2) own-account capital formation.
7.9. In the 1986 revision of the LFS, the questionnaire was drastically reduced
22 Godfrey, M. "Monitoring Labour Markets in the Philippines: Towards an Alternative Approach". Manila, 1992,p.11.
