And the highest-paying job in Phl is?

CEBU, Philippines - Tuition fees on a law course, depending on the school, are roughly swinging within the P20,000 to P40,000 level every semester, but the payback period for this course proves to be much shorter than any other given its beefy value in the job market.

Among fresh graduates, those working in the legal services turn out to be the highest paid employees in the Philippines, a report from a leading online recruitment company Jobstreet.com recently revealed.

A salary report from Jobstreet noted that while fresh graduates earn an average of P16,524, those who work in the legal profession and related services after graduation earn as much as P22,348 as starting wage.

From January to March of this year, Jobstreet identified the average salary of all specializations per position level based on the salaries posted by employers on Jobstreet.com. From there, the list of best salaries was determined.

“Take note that these are just the basic salaries posted, and do not include other forms of compensation such as leave credits, medical benefits, insurance and incentives,” the report clarified.

Following the legal services as the top paying job among fresh graduates are corporate strategists in the second spot with P20,962; personal assistants, third with P20,948; and education, fourth with P20,776.

Within the one to four years of experience or the junior executive bracket, oil and gas engineers get the highest compensation with P40,878.The average salary in this bracket remains at P21,417 and the lowest salary goes to the quality control personnel with P15,162.

Oil and gas engineers are followed by aircraft maintenance workers, P33,564; information technology (IT) workers, P32,873; and those working at the instrumentation department, P25,650.

For employees who have at least five years of experience or those working at the supervisory level, IT analysts are among the highest paid. Software analysts can get paid as much as P90,000 while database administrators and hardware IT personnel can receive a compensation of P58,000 and P56,000, respectively.

Still in the same level, electronics and communications engineers and health and safety or environmental engineers make an average of P57,000 a month, but some employers will pay over P60,000 for these positions, making them the highest paid in the engineering field.

Managers in the technical industry, meanwhile, earn above industry standards. Technical support managers earn the highest, with a monthly compensation of P115,000, while oil and gas engineers, IT managers, aircraft maintenance managers and quantity surveyors also make it to the top 10 of best paid managers.

Managers who are in the field of arts and communication also get compensated well. Managers who specialize in communication earn P72,446 monthly, while interior decorators earn P53,375. Media planners also do well with a monthly basic income of P50,859.

Finally, it takes years of experience and expertise before one becomes a senior manager but all the hard work has to pay, and it sure does pay well at this level, the same report said.

On the average, a senior manager earns P142,920. Quality control senior managers, however, get paid beyond average, earning as much as P253,000 per month.

“Most jobs that made it to the list lean on the technical side of the industry. Engineers and IT practitioners constantly appear on the list from junior executive level to senior manager level,” said Jobstreet senior marketing manager Carolyn Marie Enriquez.

The salary trend for 2013 sees science jobs, such as those in the field of pharmacy, microbiology and actuarial science, also making it to the list, she added.

Enriquez said Jobstreet decided to come up with the report because salaries are one of the basic considerations of applicants when seeking jobs.

She pointed out that it will also help jobseekers and employees gauge if their salary is competitive for their respective industries.

Last year, Jobstreet’s website in the Philippines recorded a total of 150,000 jobs in Central Visayas from over 2,600 companies which published their job openings, although Enriquez explained  they could not verify how many of those job listings translated to actual hiring.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said in a separate report early this year that some of the highest-paying jobs over the last five years are in fact unpopular choices, citing data from the Bureau of Local Employment.

Over the last five years, workers in the following occupations got the top wages in the country: art director: P69,286;  geologist: P64,889; aircraft pilot, navigator, flight engineer: P57,789; mining or metallurgical engineer: P55,638; and  computer programmer: P43,573.

Rounding out the top 10 were systems analyst or designer: P42,112; production supervisor or general foreman: P36,133; actuarian: P35,480; call center representative or customer service associate: P35,424; and statistician: P35,010.

The top jobs were determined through the median monthly basic pay and allowances of time-rate full-time workers in non-agricultural firms with at least 20 employees. (FREEMAN)