Fewer seekers in May 1 job fairs

MANILA, Philippines - Where have the jobseekers gone?

Fewer new graduates and other jobseekers turned up in various job fairs held nationwide yesterday in commemoration of Labor Day.

Labor Undersecretary Lourdes Trasmonte said a total of 270,190 local and overseas jobs were offered to Filipinos looking for new or additional employment.

Of the total jobs up for grabs, Trasmonte said 185,468 accounted for vacancies overseas while 84,704 are local jobs, mostly in call centers.

Despite the vacancies, Trasmonte said they only recorded a total of 10,760 applicants in 16 job fair sites as of 11 a.m. yesterday. Of the applicants, 695 were hired on the spot.

Aside from those who personally applied for jobs, Trasmonte said another 10,000 jobseekers also pre-registered online for the jobs fair.

She said they are hopeful that they would be able to lure a total of 50,000 job applicants to register for the available vacancies so that the government can provide more jobs to the people.

Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said that last year, a total of 70,000 jobseekers flocked to different Labor Day job fairs nationwide.

He, however, downplayed the fewer number of job applicants this year.

The labor chief explained that there are fewer applicants because many of the jobseekers opted to pre-register online.

“We also have more sites so the applicants were distributed, the process is now faster and more orderly,” he said.

Roque said the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) also provides skills training and financial grants to those who would like to put up their own business instead of getting a regular job.