Bleak outlook for US employment in 2011

MANILA, Philippines - Bad news for Filipinos aspiring to work in the United States.

Job opportunities in the United States and other Western countries are bleak in the coming year, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) reported yesterday.

“Employment prospects for Filipino workers in America and other Western countries are not that promising,” POEA chief Jennifer Manalili said, noting that US and other Western countries continue to reel from lingering effects of the global financial crisis.

Based on POEA data, US and Canada posted a sharp drop in hiring of OFWs in 2009 because of the financial crisis.

But in 2011, Manalili said, they expect Canada to hire more Filipino workers.

“Canada is starting to look better and it has resurfaced as employment market for Filipino workers,” she said.

She confirmed that a group of Canadian employers came to the Philippines and expressed their desire to hire more Filipino workers.

“Canada is looking for workers who will permanently migrate there and not temporary workers,” Manalili said.

Meanwhile, Manalili said the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) is already looking into the reported proliferation of fake overseas employment contracts (OECs), which are being used by illegally recruited workers to leave the country.

She admitted, however, that some of the OECs recovered from illegally recruited workers were found to be authentic.

“Some of the OECs were proven authentic so we are checking where they came from. We are just awaiting the NBI report,” Manalili said.