OFW exodus leads to skills crisis in RP

The exodus of Filipino workers seeking overseas employment is leading to a shortfall in workers that meet the job requirements of local companies.

Despite continued high unemployment, the number of job vacancies in the country grew in the first six months of the year.

Records of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) show a total of 677,168 job vacancies from January to June. The figure was more than double the 288,000 unfilled positions reported in the first quarter of the year.

Earlier, the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc. (FFCCCII) reported that the country is now suffering from an apparent lack of skilled workers.

Benjamin Co, FFCCCII chairman for industrial relations, said a number of their members were finding it difficult to fill up the vacancies in their companies.

Co blamed the lack of skilled workers on the country’s booming labor export industry and the growing desire of most Filipinos to seek overseas employment.

Labor officials pointed to the still unresolved mismatch between available workers and available jobs as one of the major causes of the country’s high unemployment.

Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said some employers could not fill up their vacancies because most applicants do not meet the minimum entry requirement of six months job experience.

"There is what we call a job skills mismatch, which we now consider a serious problem," she said.

To address the problem, DOLE is implementing a program to allow employers to hire new graduates and inexperienced workers at much lower pay in exchange for six months training.

But external factors are continuing to put pressure on the local labor market.

In an interview, Sto. Tomas revealed that the government of Taiwan had approved the deployment of additional Filipino workers.

Fears had been raised over the possibility that overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) based in Taiwan could be displaced by the transfer of factories to China.

"We got an additional quota from the Taiwanese government so we are now talking with Taiwanese employers about the possible hiring of more OFWs," she said.

Assistant Secretary and DOLE spokesman Benedicto Ernesto Bitonio believes OFWs are unlikely to be affected by the pullout of factories.

He noted that in the first six months of the year alone, the Philippines had already deployed some 16,000 workers to Taiwan. There are 158,000 OFWs currently employed there.

Sto. Tomas said the number of OFWs in Taiwan dropped in the late 1990s because of a dispute over airline carrier rights.

But she said the government is hoping to bring at least 30,000 more OFWs into Taiwan within the next two years.

Sto. Tomas also revealed plans by DOLE to lower the placement fees of Taiwan-based workers by at least 50 percent from the current P180,000.

Sto. Tomas hopes to achieve the reduction by having Philippine labor officials assume the responsibility of Taiwanese brokers.

"Our workers are paying placement equivalent to four months of their salaries because of the required brokers fee but we are working to minimize if not entirely eliminate the brokers’ fee," she said.