Fishermen, farmers and children still the poorest disadvantaged sectors

FISHERMEN, farmers and children remain the poorest of the basic — or disadvantaged — sectors of Philippine society, the state statistical office said on Friday.

Using data from the Family Income and Expenditure Survey and Labor Force Survey, the Philippine Statistical Authority (PSA) said poverty among fishermen, farmers and children hit 39.2%, 38.3% and 35.2%, respectively, in 2012. This compares to the 41.3%, 38% and 35.3% seen three years earlier.

The three basic sectors remained the poorest among the nine studied, the PSA noted.

“Fishermen, farmers and children consistently posted the highest poverty incidences among the nine basic sectors … also, five of the nine have higher poverty incidence than the general population, estimated at 25.2% in 2012,” the PSA said.

The others, in order, are the self-employed/unpaid family workers (29% in 2012 from 29.9% in 2009), women (25.6% from 25.7%), youth (22.3% from 21.6%), migrant and formal sector (16.6% from 16.8%), senior citizens (16.2% from 16.1%) and individuals residing in urban areas (13% from 12.6%).

Nationwide poverty was higher at 26.3% in 2009.

Poverty among the employed, meanwhile, dipped to 21.9% in 2012 from 22.8% three years earlier, while it rose to 18.7% from 16.8% among the employed.
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