DOLE: Layoff rate in Region 7 normal

Cebu - The Department of Labor and Employment does not consider as alarming the number of workers in Region 7 who have lost their jobs at this time.

“Employment rate is still at 7.8 percent so it’s still not alarming,” said DOLE Assistant Regional Director Exequiel Sarcauga in yesterday’s “Kapihan sa PIA.”

The only prominent report of cutback, Sarcauga said, is the one of LEAR Corporation wherein several workers reportedly were not given notice of termination.

He, however, said that there is a possibility that more workers would be laid off in the coming months especially that the world financial crisis is still reaching its peak in 2009.

One of those seen to be greatly affected is the export industry, as export companies would reportedly have a hard time coping with regular business. Some companies have reportedly already reported a 50 percent decrease in sales.

“The last time there was an economic crisis was 1929, it was the great depression in the US,” Sarcauga said.

The good news, nevertheless, is that economic analysts have predicted that the crisis will not last very long and that the economy is expected to rebound after it reaches its peak next year, something that Sarcauga said would provide an advantage to businesses that could hold on until 2009.

Those already greatly affected by the economic crunch are overseas Filipino workers after several factories, hotels, and shipping lines abroad have started laying off employees, more prominently in Macau, Taiwan, Korea and Hongkong. Some Casinos in the United States have also started laying off workers.

To buffer the effects of the crisis, DOLE came up with the Workers Income Augmentation Program under which workers who have been laid off can group together and propose a project that they could benefit from.

If approved, DOLE will loan the group at least P200,000 up to P1M to start the project.

DOLE also continues to give financial assistance to those who will enroll in a technical course in technical schools accredited by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.

Likewise, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration also gives financial literacy training to families of OFWs to provide them with the right knowledge to properly manage the money sent to them by their family members working abroad. — AJ de la Torre (THE FREEMAN)