OFW deployment dips below 1 million for 3rd year

MANILA, Philippines — For the third consecutive year, overseas Filipino worker (OFW) deployment has dipped below the one million mark, as total deployments have only reached 780,000 as of October as reported by Migrant Workers Secretary Susan Ople, with only a small increase to 800,000 by year’s end.

According to recruitment consultant and migration expert Manny Geslani, he is not too optimistic deployment will reach the one million mark for 2022 as not all foreign markets are open to accept migrant workers, as main labor market Saudi Arabia – which had an annual deployment of 200,000 pre-pandemic – was closed for over a year from 2021-2022.

The 2022 figures stated above include rehires or part of 460,000 land-based workers, and 230,000 sea-based seafarers deployed from January to October 2022, as reported by Ople in a recent press briefing.

The last time Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) deployment hit 2,150,000 workers was in 2019. However, the COVID pandemic that began January 2020 decreased the number of workers by 75 percent.

With the temporary ban imposed in November 2021 by former labor secretary Silvestre Bello III on household service workers, construction workers and mega recruitment companies to Saudi Arabia, the country lost a maximum deployment of 100,000 for 2021.

The ban was lifted by Ople last Nov. 9, 2022.

Meanwhile, the industrial sector is reporting that the POEA Accreditation Division takes two to three weeks to approve new accreditation requests, while renewals or additional job orders average two weeks resulting in the delay of processing new hires, which is still a long way off from the “three weeks” desired by President Marcos.

In 2020, the leading occupation of newly hired workers deployed from the Philippines were domestic cleaners and helpers, followed by domestic housekeepers.

Filipino domestic cleaners and housekeepers had been in demand in several countries, particularly in the Middle East and Hong Kong, where the salary is higher and migrant workers in these countries usually get more benefits compared with work in the Philippines.

Low OFW deployment dampens dollar remittances

Dollar remittances to the country may still reach $34 billion for 2022, as December figures are still to be counted, but so far, for the 11-month period, personal remittances inched up by 3.4 percent to $32.65 billion from $31.59 billion in the same period in 2021.

On the other hand, cash remittances coursed through banks also slipped to a six-month low of $2.64 billion. This was also the lowest recorded since the $2.43 billion in May 2022.

The lower than expected inflow of remittances may be attributed to lower deployment of OFWs in recent years.