Friday, December 19, 2008
450T overseas jobs still active: POEA
MANILA -- Nearly half a million overseas jobs remain unfilled, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said Thursday.
The POEA issued a statement after a great number of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) have been displaced or are facing possible retrenchment due to the global financial crisis.
Arroyo Watch: Sun.Star blog on President Arroyo
POEA Administrator Jennifer Manalili said for 2008, 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 come from the Middle East with a 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 cancellation [from recruitment agencies] so these are still active job orders," Manalili said during a press briefing Thursday.
She said workers are in demand in production and transportation (187,806) where ordinary laborers, earth-moving operators, plumbers, pipe fitters, production foremen, and welders are needed.
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 since October 1.
POEA deputy administrator Viveca Catalig admitted in a separate interview that the reasons why these jobs remain unfilled are slow processing of visa, mismatch of job qualifications and requirements and difficult-to-fill jobs.
"Aside from that, depleting sources of workers in Metro Manila is one [reason] so they have to source these workers from the provinces," Catalig explained.
Manalili meanwhile said deployment of OFWs remains stable despite the global meltdown.
In fact, she said for 2008, about 3,600 Filipino workers were deployed on a daily basis.
The POEA deputy administrator added that only 2,247 OFWs have been displaced since the economic slowdown.
Most of these workers (or 2,087) came from Taiwanese companies involved in electronics, metal works, and semi-conductor industries while the rest came from Australian (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 increase 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 newly hired OFWs (177,477) are 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) to other destinations.(MSN/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro. (December 19, 2008 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here. |
Speaker: I fought for Carp law