'Fewer Pinoys qualified to work abroad'

MANILA, Philippines - Fewer Filipino workers were hired abroad due to their lack of necessary skills and experience, local job recruitment industry leaders reported yesterday.

The recruitment leaders said they were only able to fill up about 40 percent of job orders from abroad mainly due to lack of highly skilled Filipino workers.

Data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) showed a decreasing number of new hires for the past years, they claimed.

“The private sector deployed 322,198 new hires for the land sector in 2010, down from the 2009 figure of 326,156 and lower considerably from the 2008 figure of 347,000,” a statement from recruitment leaders said.

They said the data indicated a decreasing number of newly hired workers compared to veteran workers.

The number of workers that were hired again has increased from 600,000 in 2008 to 742,447 in 2009 and now to almost 800,000 land-based workers.

“The increasing number of rehires in 2010 of 781,710 significantly shows that most of the deployment of POEA depend on the large number of rehires returning to their job sites instead of an increase of new hires, meaning that fewer Filipinos are qualified to work abroad because of the lack of skills and experience,” the recruiters pointed out.

Recruiters warned aspiring overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) that the POEA’s announcement of 600,000 jobs available abroad is not entirely accurate.

They said the available jobs reported by POEA administrator Carlos Cao Jr. were “bloated and are old job orders,” which the recruitment agencies failed to fill up due to lack of qualified workers.

“Most of the 600,000 job orders announced by Cao have been leftovers from previous years and remain vacant since most of the positions are difficult to fill up, or simply the country does not have the competent and qualified manpower to replace our aging OFWs in the Middle East, which is the major destination of our OFWs,” the recruiters said.

Recruiters said some countries in Europe have complicated entry requirements and language barriers which our workers may find difficult to overcome, especially with the crackdown on illegal migrants and millions of jobless workers in the European Union.