as a trade-off for a simplified collection and processing to enhance timeliness of results. The revision created gaps in a number of important data series which are vital in monitoring and explaining labor market behaviors and performances. Among these are: earnings; informal sector employment; child labor; new entrants to the labor force; out-of-school youth; and multiple job holdings.
7.10. The concept of a national labor force has to be studied increasingly, that is, the inclusion of overseas workers who return to the country after the end of their contracts. The overseas workers need to be differentiated from permanent migrant workers. What is being referred to as the labor force is the domestic labor force, those who operate within the domestic territory.
8.0. Human Resources
8.1. The Philippine Medium Term Development Plan espouses human development through the strategies of people empowerment and global competition. In particular, as a force of development, the Plan's strategy is to invest in people as a means to achieve higher growth in income through improved levels of education, health, nutrition, housing, etc. As beneficiaries of development, it also addresses human needs.23
8.2. The UNDP's HDI is a composite index which makes use of real gross domestic product (GDP) per head adjusted for poverty considerations, life expectancy at birth for the state of health, and indicators of education (mean years of schooling and literacy rates) for the level of knowledge and skill.24
8.3. Adopting the indicators used in the international arena to derive the components of HDI allows for a country comparison. HDI is also constructed to determine the country's overall human development performance in relation to other countries. It provides an alternative to GNP, for assessing a country's position in its progress in human development over time.
8.4. As of 1993, the Philippines ranked 95th among 174 countries. The 1993 HDI value of 0.665 classifies the country as having medium HDI. The country per-
23 Medium Term Philippine Development Plan 1993-1998. National Economic and Development Authority, Manila, p. I-2.
24 Human Development Report, UNDP 1997.
