DOLE exerts effort to find work for 43T unemployed

The Department of Labor and Employment is doubling its effort to meet its annual target of 43,000 job placements for the unemployed in the region this year.

From January to June, 21,000 unemployed were hired, DOLE records show.

Grace Diaz, DOLE 7 employment promotions division chief said that most of the jobs were provided through their local and international jobs fair which were done in partnership with local government units, business sector, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, and other government agencies.

For the first semester of the year, the labor department had conducted about 22 jobs fair, 20 of which were held in Cebu and one each in Negros Oriental and Siquijor.

Diaz said that although the number of retrenched workers during the first quarter is quite high in the first quarter, retrenchment by companies in the second quarter was low and most were temporary lay off.

DOLE 7 expects hordes of applicants to join jobs fair next month at the Cebu Capitol grounds and another one in Bohol in September.

Diaz said DOLE is optimistic it can achieve the target of 43,000 for the region this year. She said DOLE needs 22,000 more job placements to hit the target by end of the year.

Aside from jobs fair, the regional labor office is also doing regular solicitations of job vacancies from companies in Cebu, especially within the Mactan Export Processing Zone locators that have regular tie-ups for their local job placement program.

Diaz said most of those the agency helps to find jobs are high school graduates or college level who were mostly absorbed as production workers by MEPZ companies or employed in the service-related sector. Those in Negros Oriental and Siquijor also acquired jobs in the service sector. - Wenna A. Berondo