ILOILO City – Jobless? A total of 42,327 employment opportunities would be made available in tomorrow’s job fair of the Iloilo provincial government’s Public Employment Service Office (PESO).
The job fair is timely. The number of jobless Filipinos climbed to 21.5 percent in the third quarter of 2019, according to a recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.
An estimated 10 million adults identified themselves as unemployed. This is higher compared to the 9.8 million (20.7 percent) jobless Filipino adults in June and the 9.4 million (19.7 percent) in March, SWS said in its study conducted from September 27 to 30, 2019.
According to PESO chief Francisco Heler Jr., the following would be participating in the job fair to be held at Grand Xing Imperial Hotel a few meters away from the provincial capitol:
* 68 local companies
* four government agencies (Bureau of Jail Management and Penology, Bureau of Fire Protection, Philippine Army, Iloilo provincial government – Human Resource Management and Development Office
* 13 business process outsourcing companies
* 19 overseas (land-based) companies
Of the 42,327 job vacancies, 12,687 are overseas employment, said Heler. These are for the following:
* Saudi Arabia – waiters, engineers, nurses, plumbers
* United States of America – nurses, physical therapists
* United Kingdom – nurses, restaurant crews
* Qatar – plumbers, HVAC technician
* Japan – scaffolders, manual welders, spray painters
* New Zealand – masons, carpenters, tillers
Available local employments are for online tutors, customer service representatives, nurses, restaurant crew, office staff, drivers, and maintenance personnel.
According to SWS, joblessness across all age groups increased, except for workers 18 to 24-years old. Joblessness in this age bracket dropped to 1.9 million adults (44.9 percent) from the second quarter’s 2.8 million unemployed adults (50.2 percent).
Some 3.3 million workers aged between 25 and 34 said they were jobless, while 2 million Filipinos aged between 35 and 44 said they do not have jobs.
Among those aged 45 years and above, some 14 percent or 2.8 million said they did not have work.
The following government agencies would be setting up help desks at the job fair tomorrow to assist applicants:
* Philippine Overseas Employment Administration
* Department of Foreign Affairs
* Philippine Statistics Authority
* Overseas Workers Welfare Administration
* Social Security System
* Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA)
* National Bureau of Investigation
* Bureau of Internal Revenue
Heler said special lanes would be set up for job hunters who are persons with disabilities (PWDs), solo parents, indigenous people, TESDA graduates, and beneficiaries of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Sustainable Livelihood Program beneficiaries.
Five companies looking for information technology technicians committed to hire PWDs and senior citizens, said Heler.
Job hunters must bring pertinent documents such as resumé, bio-data and application letter.
According to SWS, despite the increase of joblessness among Filipinos, about half of the survey’s 1,800 respondents said they were optimistic that there would be more available jobs in the next 12 months.
Fifty-three percent of respondents said they expect “more jobs” over the next coming months, while only 13 percent believed that there will be “fewer jobs” in the near future. About 21 percent said there will be “no change” in the number of jobs available, while 12 percent said they “don’t know” what will happen./PN
