Despite growing global demand for skilled workers, the hiring of Filipino workers continues to slump, according to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).
In the first 11 months of the year, preliminary data from POEA showed a two percent drop in the deployment of workers compared to last year.
From January to Nov. 11, POEA recorded a total deployment of 931,840 or some 19,000 lower than the 951,138 Filipino workers who left to work abroad during the same period in 2006.
There is good news, however, for returning overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). Those who are planning to start a business would get assistance from local governments based on a proposal of the Commission on Filipino Overseas (CFO).
Golda Myra Roma, CFO-Planning, Research and Policy Division director, said they were inspired by the “Tres-Por-Uno” program in Mexico wherein the government matches with $3 every dollar sent by Mexicans abroad.
“Every municipal, national and federal government would shell out a dollar,” she said.
The proposal was made during the conference on “Turning Transnational International Migration and Development Prospects in the Philippines” at the Pan Pacific Hotel on Nov. 19 and 20.
Roma said local governments “would have to check on the recruitment agencies setting up offices in their area or recruiting individuals.”
Decline in hiring
POEA data showed the number of land-based workers hired declined from 712,499 to 711,421. Among these, new hires posted a drop of 7.1 percent from 284,489 to 264,163 workers. Re-hired workers also dropped from 447,258 to 428,610.
The deployment of sea-based workers also went down by 7.6 percent to 220,419 from last year’s 238,639.
POEA records also showed a 10.1 percent decline in contracts processed in the first 11 months of the year – from 1,064,593 to 956,735. Re-hired workers accounted for a 35.7-percent drop in the contracts processed.
Recruitment industry leaders attributed the slump in the hiring of Filipino workers to the serious lack of appropriately skilled workers and the implementation of a new government policy in employing Filipino maids.
About 100,000 Filipino domestic helpers were unable to work abroad after the policy that doubles their monthly salary to $400 was implemented last December, recruitment leaders said.
Labor officials, however, remained confident that foreign employers still prefer hiring Filipino workers and that the slump is just temporary.
On the other hand, despite growing employment opportunities and offers of high salaries, many Filipino seafarers are opting to retire early and stay in the country for good.
Data from the Association of Marine Officers and Seamen’s Union of the Philippines (AMOSUP) showed that 25 percent of seamen filing for retirement claims are less than 50 years old, AMOSUP president Gregorio Oca said. – Mayen Jaymalin, Evelyn Macairan