Clark generates 70,000 jobs

MANILA, Philippines - The number of workers in the Clark Freeport zone hit an all time high of more than 70,000 as of the end of July, the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) said.

Citing the report of the customer service department to CDC chair and officer-in-charge Eduardo Oban Jr., the CDC said in a statement that the number of workers at the Freeport zone reached 70,097 as of end-July, increasing by 3,874 from the end-June figure.

“It was one of the biggest increase since the inception of CDC in 1993,” it said.

CDC said the number of workers came from the 567 reporting locators inside the freeport zone.

As of July 31, there are 585 locators with contracts with the CDC.

The previous record employment in the freeport zone was in June when the number of workers reached more than 66,000.

The CDC said then that one of the biggest contributors to the increase in employment in the freeport zone was the expansion of business process outsourcing (BPO) firm Cyber City Teleservices, Inc.

Cyber City expanded its operations in the last quarter of 2011 after seeing some improvement in the US economy as well as the growing business climate in Clark.

CDC noted that Cyber City, which has more than 2,000 workers, needs about 900 agents to boost its operations.

The CDC said Oban is hoping the opening of other tourism-related projects in Clark would provide more employment opportunities not only for the residents of the Metro Clark area, but also in the adjacent provinces of Tarlac and Pampanga.

The expansion of BPO and industrial firms following the improving global economy are also seen to help create more jobs.

The Clark Freeport zone in Pampanga is managed by the CDC.