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Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Cabaero: Jobless in the age of ESL villages
By Nini B. Cabaero
Beyond 30
The report on the number of Central Visayas workers losing their jobs is an interesting twist to this age of call centers, medical transcriptions and English-as-a-second-language (ESL) villages.
Look at the wanted advertisements on newspapers and you will find companies representing these industries calling for applications for thousands of openings. Browsing through these advertisements, especially on a Sunday issue, you would think there’s a jobs bonanza going on in Cebu.
But alas, there is no such bonanza.
Even this innovation called ESL tours or villages, where the English language is taught to Asian tourists by Cebu teachers in a beach resort, is not enough to stop the downward spiral of employment.
Labor statistics showed about 13,000 workers in Central Visayas lost their jobs in the first 10 months of this year. It wasn’t clear in the report if this year’s performance was better or worse from last year’s since employment statistics have a way of confusing people with terms like “affected by the closure of establishments” and “lost their jobs temporarily or permanently,” with one not having the same meaning as the other.
Statistics aside, the employment landscape of Cebu is changing with the entry and rise of new industries such as call centers, medical transcription services and ESL teaching. These new jobs may be better paid but are less stable than the old, traditional jobs.
Turnover of employees is swift, with some work contracts pegged at six months or less, and those retrenched or those whose contracts have expired have resorted to calling themselves as not jobless but in between jobs.
Stripped of financial security but not without a sense of humor, these workers trudge on because to stop trying to find a job is to lose hope in the struggle against poverty and social alienation.
As stated in a Social Watch (www.socialwatch.org) report on world employment, the creation of jobs is not a question of possibility, it is a question of need. “Democracies will prosper and the revolution of increasing expectations will be satisfied peacefully, only if there are economic opportunities for everyone,” the report said.
Labor officials here are optimistic job placement figures would increase this year. Some in the employers sector share this sentiment, with a warning that if workers continue to demand increases in wages however, no such improvement will happen.
Employment is a key issue that might not be wise to be left to market forces alone. The loss of jobs or underpayment to workers is important not only to the persons involved but to industry and local government as well. The solution to employment problems rests on that interdependent nature of labor, industry and government.
(e-mail: ninicab@sunstar.com.ph)
(November 23, 2004 issue)
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