more than 8 out of l0 OFWs were laborers and unskilled workers (32.4%), trades and related workers (15.7%), service workers (14.3%), plant and machine operators and assemblers (13.0%), and clerks (5.6%). Meanwhile only 15.8% were professionals, associate professionals or technicians. The SOF also finds that almost three-fourths of OFW cash remittances come from laborers and unskilled workers (18.8%), trades and related workers (17.4%), plant and machine operators and assemblers (15.0%), service workers and shop and market sales work (13.5%), clerks (5.1%) and farmers, forestry workers and fishermen (0.8%). These highlight how efforts to address the welfare of migrant workers and their families need to give particular focus on those in working class jobs. Migration is generally a diflicult option for the poorest of the poor in the Philippines although substantial numbers of migrants still do come from the lower income classes. Migration involves significant start-up costs, the process of finding work entails an involved process ofnavigating private and public bureaucracies, and overseas work demands certain levels of skill. All together these will tend to deter migration by those with little education, skills or resources to begin with. For instance the NSO's 2007 SOF found that26.9% of OFWs wsls high school graduates and64.7o/o more had entered if not actually graduated from college. In this way migration may have the unintended effect of reinforcing existing disparities or even widening inequalities. The NSO's Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) of 2003 found that 1.3 million families or 7 .9Yo out of the country's total 16.5 million families had "cash receipts, gifts and other forms of assistance from abroad as main source of income (italics supplied)", while 3.7 million families (22.1%)'oreceived in cash any receipt, gift or other forms of assistance from abroad". The latest 2'd quarter 2009 Consumer Expectations Survey (CES) of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) in turn found 11.0% of its respondent households having an OFW member, 92.1% of which households reported receiving remittances. The 2003 FIES survey finds that around half of all Filipino families have annual family incomes less than P100,000 per year (52.2%) with the other half having family incomes of P100,000 or more (47 .8%). Over 8 out of 10 of OFW-dependent families i.e., those with main income from abroad - were in the family income class of P100,000 or more (82J%), with the biggest concentration or almost 5 out of 10 in the P100,000249,000 range (47.ZYo). In contrast only the remaining less than 2 out of l0 (17.9o/o) werc in the lower half. The picture is only slightly different when considering families receiving assistance from abroad although not as their main source of income. The 2006 FIES notes that 3 out of 4 families receiving assistance from abroad (74.5%) were in the upper income half of the population (i.e., top five income deciles) while only one out of fonr (25.5o/o) were in the lower income half of the population (i.e., bottom five income