POEA assures Filipinos of available jobs abroad

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA-7) recently announced the availability of over 100 thousand job orders available for Filipinos in Middle East, North America, and Australia.

POEA-7 officer-in-charge Evelia M. Durato said that despite the projected job retrenchments abroad, especially in the United States, job orders from other countries are still increasing.

At present, Durato said retrenchment figures of the overseas Filipino workers is still considered minimal and so far affected only those that are working in Taiwan and Korea.

"The figures of retrenched Filipinos in Taiwan, and Korea are not alarming. But we don't know yet in the first quarter or second quarter next year if the global crisis will take its toll on some overseas Filipino workers," Durato said.

 In fact, from January to November this year, about 27,000 have departed from Cebu for jobs abroad, which reflects an increase of 10 percent compared to the same period of last year.

"Job orders have continued to increase, especially in low-skilled professions such as construction workers, welders, hospitality services, caregivers," said Durato in an interview yesterday.

 In Canada, demands for jobs as service crew, tire industry, care giving is increasing. This would provide opportunity for more Filipinos to get work abroad, although there is a looming global economic crisis, Durato said.

In the Middle East, countries like Dubai, Qatar, Oman, and Saudi Arabia are continuously posting job orders, Durato said.

"In the last few years, our job orders abroad are increasing. Deployment of Filipino workers, specifically coming from the region are also improving," she said.

Durato believes that despite the global recession, some countries like Canada, Middle East, Australia, and even some parts in Europe, still needing man power, and one of the most in demand workers are Filipinos.

In an earlier separate interview with Michael Hall executive officer of Australia Council for Private Education and Training, he said that Filipinos are one of the priority choices among Australia employers to fill in the 120,000 skilled workers to be needed in its second biggest state-Queensland in the next two years.

To date, there are 160 thousand Pinoys working and living in Australia, this is expected to grow more as job opportunities in Australia is growing tremendously, Brown added.

In Queensland, average pay per hour stood at P800, Brown believes that Filipinos will be able to easily find job opportunities in Australia, specifically if they are getting proper Australian Quality Training Framework registration, like those trained by ILI and Charlton Brown.

Australia Embassy to the Philippines minister and deputy head of mission Stephen Scott said that companies in Australia still need workers, providing opportunities for Filipinos to look for job and even migrate to Australia.