Philippines - Occupational Wages Survey 1997

Statistical unit: The statistical unit is the establishment. Each unit is classified to an industry that reflects its main economic activity---the activity that contributes the biggest or major portion of the gross income or revenues of the establishment.

Survey universe/sample frame: The sampling frame used for the survey was taken from the List of Establishments of the National Statistics Office. On a partial basis, this is regularly updated based on the responses to other surveys of the BLES and establishment reports on retrenchments and closures submitted to the Regional Offices of the Department of Labor and Employment.

Sample design: The OWS is a complete enumeration survey of more than 8,000 non-agricultural establishments employing 50 persons or more.

Note: Refer to Metadata


The response rate in terms of sampling units was 79%.


Estimates are obtained by simple expansion, i.e. by multiplying the sample values at the cell level (region, industry and employment size) by the corresponding blowing-up factor which is the ratio of the eligible population of establishments to the number of responding establishments.

While the OWS is a complete enumeration survey, not all of the fielded questionnaires are accomplished. Due to the inadequacy of the frame used, there are reports of permanent closures, non-location, duplicate listing and shifts in industry and employment outside the survey coverage after the reference date. Establishments that fall in these categories are not eligible elements of the population and their count is not considered in the estimation. In addition to non-response of establishments because of refusals, strikes or temporary closures, there are establishments whose questionnaires contain inconsistent item responses that are not included in the processing as these have not replied to the verification queries by the time output table generation commences. Such establishments are also considered as non-respondents.