ONLY 199 or 18.9 percent out of the 1,054 applicants were hired on the spot (Hots) during a simultaneous job fair in Cebu City and Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental.
The Department of Labor and Employment in Central Visayas (DOLE 7) said that of the total number of applicants, 728 were from Cebu and 326 from Negros Oriental.
Eighteen percent or 131 of the Cebu job hopefuls were employed on the spot, while 68 or 20 percent in Negros Oriental.
DOLE 7 information officer Luchel Taniza had announced on April 30 that there were 6,600 job vacancies up for grabs during the synchronized job fair held on May 1, 2023 in Robinsons Galleria Mall in Cebu City and Lamberto Macias Sports and Cultural Center in Dumaguete City to commemorate the 121st Labor Day celebration.
Emmanuel Ferrer, assistant director of DOLE 7, confirmed that the customer service representative position had the most number of hires with 35, followed by English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher with 28, cashier with 24, card dealer with 22, and sales clerk with 14.
But he did not categorically say how many of those hired for the aforementioned positions are from Cebu City or Dumaguete City.
Ferrer added that around 108 non-Hots applicants were referred to the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) for skills training and enhancement, and another 17 to the Department of Trade and Industry for entrepreneurship coachings and 81 to the DOLE for livelihood assistance.
"You might wonder what will happen on the remaining. As part of the intervention of the job fair, for those unsuccessful of their application will be referred [to] Tesda for the enhancement of their skills," Ferrer told SunStar Cebu on Tuesday, May 2.
Ferrer had announced that there will be another job fair, dubbed “Kalayaan Job Fair,” on June 12 to commemorate the Independence Day celebration.
"There is a series of job fairs not just for May 1, but in fact, on June 12, we will have another one," he said. (KJF)