Employers target 1 million new jobs in Q1

MANILA, Philippines — The private sector expects to achieve its goal of creating one million jobs to help the economy recover from the pandemic within the first quarter of this year, with the delay attributed to lockdowns and transportation problems last year, the Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) said.

“Hopefully, this first quarter, we should be able to complete one million jobs,” ECOP president Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. said in a telephone interview.

He said firms in the manufacturing, construction, and even those in non-essential sectors are interested to hire.

“Hopefully, there would be no stringent protocols so we should be able to meet the first quarter one million jobs,” he said.

While the private sector initially aimed to meet the one million jobs target by December 2021, he said this was delayed by the government’s imposition of a lockdown in Metro Manila and nearby provinces in August.

He said the difficulty in transportation faced by workers coming from the provinces also affected the initiative.

So far, Ortiz-Luis said the initiative has generated 610,000 jobs, with the bulk coming from the information technology-business process management sector.

He said there were also jobs from other sectors including manufacturing and construction.

The private sector launched the One Million Jobs for 2021 project in partnership with the government in June last year.

Under the initiative, the private sector will be responsible for identifying job vacancies in their member-companies and will work with the government’s National Employment Recovery Strategy task force, which oversees implementation of an action plan for recovery in the jobs market.

The initiative aims to deploy workers in the following sectors: construction, manufacturing particularly semiconductors and electronics, tourism and hospitality, and export industries.

Aside from ECOP, other groups that are part of the initiative are the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc., Hotel and Restaurant Association of the Philippines, Philippine Constructors Association Inc., Philippine Hotel Owners Association Inc. and Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation Inc.