Phl running out of barbers, hairdressers

MANILA, Philippines - Here’s a hair-raising predicament: the Philippines faces not only a shortage of professionals but even of barbers, hairdressers and beauticians.

These have been among the hard-to-fill occupations in the country for the past years, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

A recent survey involving over 7,000 establishments enabled the DOLE to identify the occupations where employers found difficulties in recruiting workers.

Results of the survey also show that more than half of the hard-to-fill occupations involved clerical jobs such as call center agents, while professionals accounted for 20 percent of the vacancies.

Among the top 10 hard-to-fill vacancies in the group of professionals are engineers, system analysts, accountants, medical technologists, pharmacists, writers, architects, medical doctors, chemists and teachers.

Technicians and associate professionals represent the third biggest group. Also included in the group are positions in the aviation industry.

Managerial and supervisory positions comprised a small percentage, but DOLE said this group is the hardest to fill, considering the number of applicants.

Service workers accounted for only a small group. But topping the hard-to-fill list in this group are barbers, hairdressers and beauticians.

More than one-third of the respondent employers in the survey cited shortage of applicants with right competencies as the biggest challenge in recruiting.

Other reasons cited for difficulty in filling up the vacancies were few number of applicants, lack of experience among applicants and the applicants’ expectation of high salaries.

Average duration of recruitment for hard-to-fill vacancies was estimated at 3.3 months for all occupations, although there are certain professions that took longer time to fill up.