months, once the contract exceeds six months they are deemed regular workers and must be paid as such.9 Employers limit contracts to 5 months or less to avoid this, leaving workers in a cycle of precarious employment where they are subject to exploitation and abuse. According to Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), one-third of the Philippine population is involved in a form of contractualization.10 Another issue pertains to age discrimination.11 Domestic workers who had returned to the Philippines stated that despite their skills and experience their age made local employment near impossible, and this forced them to look for work overseas again.12 Furthermore, unemployment in July 2015 was 6.5%, while the underemployment rate was 21%. This number is close to both the figures from October 2006 and October 2011, with unemployment at 7.3% in 2006 and 6.4% in 2011. Underemployment in 2006 was 20.4% and 19.1% in 2011.1314 These figures do not include the province of Leyte which was affected by Typhoon Yolanda in late 2013.15 Climate change is another factor that impacts employment in the country. With a population of 100.1 million (2014), a lack of job prospects weighs heavily on individuals, families, and communities.16 As a result, many Filipinos are forced to migrate overseas for work, with women representing the majority of this number. The area most disproportionately affected by poverty is the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) region in Mindanao. The region is mainly Muslim and is composed of five provinces: Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Sulu, and Tawi-Tawi. It is characterized by a history of conflict and poverty.17 According to the UNDP, all of the provinces in ARMM, except for Basilan, have the lowest HDI levels in the Philippines, with Tawi-Tawi (0.310), Maguindanao (0.300), and Sulu (0.266) representing the bottom three provinces in the country.18 The province of Sulu is close to the HDI of countries in Africa, such as Niger and the Democratic Republic of Congo.19 Disparities are present in education levels and poverty rates. In 2013, the ARMM region had the largest number of children out of school. While females generally are more educated than males in the Philippines, this is not true for the ARMM region. 18.5 percent of females aged six to twenty-four were out-of-school compared to 10.3 percent of males in the 9 Cristobal, M., A., E. & Resurreccion, E. 2014. De-Confusing Contractualization: Defining Employees Engaged in Precarious work in the Philippines. Philippine Law Journal. Retrieved from http://plj.upd.edu.ph/wpcontent/uploads/2015/03/88-02-J-88B14-De-Confusing-Contractualization-v1.pdf 10 Medenilla, S. 2014. A Third of Total Workforce are ‘Non-regular’ – DoLE retrieved from http://www.mb.com.ph/a-third-of-total-workforce-are-non-regular-dole/ 11 Rappler, “Stop age discrimination in hiring workers - Pia Cayetano” http://www.rappler.com/nation/91819-stopage-discrimination-workplace-pia-cayetano 12 Center for Migrant Advocacy, “HSW Policy Reform Assessment” June 2015, https://centerformigrantadvocacy.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/hsw-policy-reform-assess-final-version-aug-9.pdf 13 Philippine Statistics Authority, “Unemployment rate is estimated at 7.3 percent in October 2006 results from the October 2006 labor force survey (LFS),” https://psa.gov.ph/content/employment-rate-estimated-936-percent-october-2011results-october-2011-labor-force-survey 14 Philippine Statistics Authority, “Employment rate is estimated at 93.6 percent in October 2011 results from the October 2011 labor force survey (LFS),” https://psa.gov.ph/content/employment-rate-estimated-936-percent-october-2011results-october-2011-labor-force-survey 15 Philippine Statistic Authorities. 2015. Reference Number 2015-075. Employment Rate Estimated at 93.5 Percent in July 2015. Retrieved from https://psa.gov.ph/content/employment-rate-estimated-935-percent-july-2015 16 Philippine population 1960 – 2015. Retrieved from http://www.tradingeconomics.com/philippines/population 17 Population Reference Bureau, Population, Health, and Environment: Issues in the Philippine, A profile of the autonomous region in muslim mindanao http://www.prb.org/pdf08/pheregionalprofiles_armm.pdf 18 UNDP, “Human development index highlights inequality, slow pace of growth,” http://www.ph.undp.org/content/philippines/en/home/presscenter/pressreleases/2013/07/29/human-development-indexhighlights-inequality-slow-pace-of-progress.html 19 Ibid. 4 of 12