According to the Philippine labor force survey released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) last March 15, there were approximately 36.4 million Filipinos in the labor force in January 2007 out of the estimated 56.1 million population 15 years and over. Unemployment rate was 7.8% — translating into a total employed population of 33.5 million broken down as follows:
53.4% Wage and salary workers
35.1% Own-account workers (including self-employers)
11.5% Unpaid family workers
The self-employed workers (or self-employers) account for 30.4% of the total employed population, or 10.2 million Filipinos. There is no single association organized to cater to this group. Most of the associations are organized by profession, ethnic origin, industry, or some random manner to form a group and charge membership fees.
We will attempt to provide information on these organizations soon. For now, these are some examples:
- Mgt Assoc of the Philippines – A new member pays a P10,000 admission fee and the annual dues pegged at P16,000 for 2005. The annual dues will cover the lunches for eleven (11) monthly general membership meetings from January to November and the dinner for the annual Christmas Dinner-Dance Party in December.
- Integrated Bar of the Philippines tel: (632)631-3018/631-3014; http://www.ibp.org.ph/; e-mail: inbar@v-link.net; composed of about 40,000 lawyer-members)
- Philippine Medical Association http://pma.com.ph/; e-mail: info@pma.com.ph; 107 component societies in 17 regions; 28,000 members)
- Philippine Institute of Civil Engineers (http://www.pice.org.ph/; e-mail: picenatl@skyinet.net, picenatl@pice.org.ph )
- Philippine Public School Teachers Associations (200,000 members)
- Philippine Dental Association (tel: (632)890-4609/899-6333; 10,000 members)
- Philippine Nurses’ Association (tel: (632)536-1888/525-1596; http://pna-ph.org/; 41,000 members)
More available here:
http://www.asianphilanthropy.org/countries/philippines/business.html
http://www.philippinebusiness.com.ph/directories/
Question: How can we consolidate the massive buying power of the self-employers to benefit its members?