Friday, December 19, 2008
POEA: 450T overseas jobs still active
NEARLY half a million overseas jobs remains unfilled, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said Thursday.
The statement was issued after a great number of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have been displaced or facing possible retrenchment due to the global financial crunch.
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POEA administrator Jennifer Manalili said for the year 2008 there are about 450,062 active job orders that have not been occupied.
Data provided by the POEA planning office indicated that the bulk of these unfilled job orders came from the Middle East with 313,868 demand; Asia (80,225), Americas (31,341), Europe (9,852), Africa (8,265), Oceania (5,543), and Trust Territories (968).
Manalili further said that the countries with the most job orders are as follows:
* Saudi Arabia (93,764), mostly (40,465) in production and transportation;
* United Arab Emirates (78,966), also mostly (31,453) in production and transportation;
* Qatar (72,771), also mostly (39,439) in production and transportation;
* Kuwait (36,568), mostly in service sector (13,380);
* Hong Kong (26,592), also mostly in service sector (26,497);
* Taiwan (24,159), mostly in production and transportation (22,454);
* Oman (14,632), mostly in service sector (7,848);
* Singapore (9,825), mostly in professional and technical sectors
(3,147);
* Canada (5,526), mostly in service sector (2,248); and
* Bahrain (3,705), mostly in service (1,088).
"We have not received any cancellations so these are still active job orders," Manalili said during a press briefing Thursday.
She said the in-demand workers are production and transportation (187,806) mostly in need of ordinary laborers, earth-moving operators, plumbers, pipe fitters, production foremen, and welders.
Also, service sector (112,511) for household service workers and waiters; professional and technical (108,803) for nurses, engineers, and teachers; receptionists (21,392); sales (10,748) for sales agents and demonstrators; administrative and management (5,107); agriculture/animal husbandry/forestry (1,498) for farmers; and the rest (2,197) do not fall under any category.
According to Manalili from January to December 9, 2008, a total of 705,876 job vacancies were approved by the POEA, of which 105,616 were added from October 1.
POEA deputy administrator Viveca Catalig in a separate interview admitted that the reasons why this jobs remain unfilled are slow processing of visa, mismatch of job qualifications and requirements and difficult-to-fill jobs (usually requiring two years experience).
"Aside from that the case of depleting sources of workers in Metro Manila is one so they have to source this workers to the provinces," Catalig explained.
Manalili meanwhile said despite the global meltdown, deployment of OFWs remains stable.
In fact, she said for the year 2008, about 3,600 Filipino workers were deployed on a daily basis.
The POEA chief added that since the economic glut, only 2,247 OFWs have been displaced.
Most of these workers (or 2,087) came from Taiwan companies involved in electronics, metal works, and semi-conductor industries while the rest came from Australia (75), Brunei (69), and London (16) companies engaged in shipbuilding, garments, and electrical and telecommunications industries respectively.
Manalili said: "This year we were able to surpass our 1-million deployment target after posting 1,221,829 or an increased of 24.4 percent from 982,286 during the same period."
"From January to November we already hit more than 1.2 million so we have surpassed the target," she added. Of the total deployed, about 75 percent (919,606) were land-based and the rest (302,223) sea-based.
This news breaking record, she said, is translated to a daily average of 3,647 workers who found gainful employment abroad.
The top 10 destinations of new hired OFWs (177,477) were Saudi Arabia (61,164), United Arab Emirates (34,595), Qatar (21,352), Taiwan (14,660), Kuwait (8,326), Hong Kong (7,912), Canada (4,007), Bahrain (2,168), Singapore (2,069), and Australia (1,858); the rest (19,366) are to other destinations. (MSN/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro. (December 19, 2008 issue)
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