Pinoy workers’ deployment to US up in first quarter

More Filipino workers were hired in the United States in the first quarter of the year despite a temporary halt in the issuance of visas to foreign workers, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said yesterday.

A significant 30.4 percent increase in the hiring of Filipino workers in the US was posted from January to March, Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said.

Even as the US Embassy suspended the issuance of visas to the Philippines and other labor sending countries, records from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration showed a total of 4,444 Filipino workers were hired in various US states from that period.

The figure, Sto. Tomas said, was 30.4 percent higher than the 3,409 workers deployed to the US during the same period last year.

She said the increase was notable since the US is not among the Philippines’ major markets, and that it came about even when the US suspended issuing visas.

The labor chief also noted that worker deployment to the US would grow further in the coming months as Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) and several other US territories expressed desire to hire Filipino construction and tourism workers this year.

Officials of the TCI came to the Philippines last February to personally oversee the screening of applicants for different jobs in their island. TCI plans to hire at least 1,000 construction and tourism workers.

Sto. Tomas added the Philippine government is now initiating efforts to expand occupation categories for Filipinos in Caribbean countries, including TCI, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.

There are now 1,332 Filipino workers employed in Cayman Island, Bahamas and TCI. — Mayen Jaymalin