Global economic crisis to leave more Filipinos unemployed

The slowdown in the world economy may leave more Filipinos out of work because the country may not be able to meet its target of sending one million workers overseas and its goal of hiring one million workers for the outsourcing industry, the Free Trade Alliance (FTA) said.

“The country will not be able to meet its medium term goal of deploying one million OFWs (overseas Filipino workers),” Rene E. Ofreneo FTA executive director said in an interview.

According to Ofreneo, the global economic crunch will have an adverse effect on the country’s six major growth areas. He identified these areas as OFW, remittance, business process outsourcing, electronics, overseas development assistance (ODA) and agricultural export.

For OFW, Ofreneo said this is the first time the country will experience problems with regards to all OFWs. In the past, he said problems are concentrated in particular regions that is why the over all contribution was not affected.

However, he said majority of the Filipino workers in the 120 countries will feel the effects of the recession.

Aside from not being able to send more workers, Ofreneo said the government must deal with the problem of OFWs coming home without jobs here.

“The impact of OFWs coming home will be felt during the first quarter of next year,” he explained.

Ofreneo said this is the first time the country will not meet its goal of sending one million workers overseas but said there may still be some Filipinos getting offers in other countries but these would be skilled workers.

“Most low skilled OFWs may be laid off because they are easier to replace. Now that the global economy is slowing down, locals of the host countries where OFWs are will be willing to do the dangerous, dirty and difficult jobs, something these people used to avoid,” he said further.

The second growth area that will be affected is related to OFWs. The remittance being received will be greatly affected.

In the past, the government has credited the economic growth to consumption fueled by contributions from OFWs.

“The service industry and even the real estate industry will suffer. Malls like SM and Gaisano mushroomed because of the consumer spending,” he noted.

The third growth area of the country which will be affected is the BPO industry. Ofreneo said many call centers have already stopped hiring because most of the accounts are financial institutions like Manulife and banks.

“The goal of the BPO industry is to employ one million by 2010. I do not think they will meet this,” he said. “There is even a danger that some accounts will pull out.”

The fourth sector is the electronics assembly. This industry has been slowing down since last year when news of a US economic recession surfaced.

Last month, Fujitsu announced it is closing. Intel has already said they will close early this year. “The demand for electronics is going down.”

The fifth sector is ODA because the aid is primarily from the United States, Japan, Germany, Canada, Australia and China.

The last is agricultural export. The country is exporting mango, pineapple and banana to Japan. “The Japanese would surely be reducing their consumption now.”