Poverty most prevalent among fishermen - NSCB

Manila, Philippines -  Fishermen have the highest incidence of poverty in the country, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) said in a recent report, citing the 2009 Official Poverty Statistics for the Basic Sectors.

According to the report, fishermen posted the highest poverty incidence for nine basic sectors in the Philippines at 41.4 percent, the same level in 2006.

This was followed by farmers and children, registering poverty incidences of 36.7 percent in 2009 from 37.2 percent in 2006, and 35.1 percent in 2009 from 34.8 percent in 2006, respectively.

Generally, in the Philippines, fishermen, farmers, children, self-employed and unpaid family workers recorded higher poverty incidence among the rest of the population in the country.

“Poverty incidence for four basic sectors increased between 2006 and 2009, youth and migrant and formal sector workers, both with one percentage point increases and children and individuals residing in urban areas, both with 0.3 percentage point increases,” the NSCB said in its report.

Between the employed and unemployed population, poverty incidence increased from 22.1 percent in 2006 to 22.4 percent in 2009, the NSCB also reported.

“It is worth noting that the poverty incidence for employed population is higher than the poverty incidence for unemployed population both in 2006 and 2009. In terms of magnitude of employed population, only the National Capital Region, Cordillera Administrative Region, Regions 1 and 4-B showed a decrease from 2006 to 2009,” the NSCB said.

Furthermore, between 2006 and 2009, Region VIII or the Eastern Visayas region and Region VI or the Western Visayan region, posted the biggest increase in poverty incidence for both the employed population and unemployed population.

The poverty incidence for employed population increased to 34.8 percent from 30.5 percent and for the unemployed population to 21.4 percent and 11.7 percent, respectively.