Construction, S&T among sectors with highest job opportunities – DOLE

Local and foreign employment prospects for Filipinos, especially in the construction and science and technology sectors, remain rosy this year, Labor Secretary Arturo Brion said yesterday.

During the “Cabinet Speaks” forum at Malacañang hosted by Undersecretary Martin Crisostomo, Brion identified sectors in the country that have high employment opportunities this year.

These include construction; maritime; health including wellness and medical, hotel and tourism; science and technology including information and cyber-services; mining; and agribusiness.

He also cited the favorable labor indicators in 2007 where unemployment dropped from 7.3 percent to 6.3 percent compared to same period in 2006, which is equivalent to gaining some 400,000 jobs.

“The economy is moving forward, peso is strengthening, and we expect jobs to increase locally and overseas,” Brion said.

The country also broke its own records in the last two years where 2007 registered only six labor strikes compared to 12 in 2006 and 26 in 2005. In 1986, the country had 581 strikes in one year.

Brion said in the last two years, the Philippines also topped the one million level of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

“And I would say that for 2008, we will easily top the one million level,” Brion said.

Although it is not a policy of the government to send workers abroad, Brion said OFWs continue to help the country’s economic growth through their remittances, especially the OFWs belonging to the higher pay levels.

“One reason why we have steep remittances now is, in 2007, we had more professional and skilled workers going overseas rather than non-skilled workers,” Brion said.

In 2006, he said that 60 percent of the more than one million Filipinos who worked abroad were professionals, while 40 percent were non-skilled workers.

In 2007, Brion said the deployment of skilled overseas workers increased to 73 percent compared to 27 percent for non-skilled workers, including domestic workers.

Brion attributed the shift in the employment pattern of OFWs to several programs, including the household service worker reform package established last March wherein the Philippines set a minimum $400 salary for Filipino household workers deployed abroad.

He said Filipinos with higher opportunities for deployment abroad are topped by those coming from the medical and health, information technology, and services sectors.

Brion said nurses were not affected by the nursing examination scandal last year, citing the big employment opportunities in Europe, Canada and even Saudi Arabia.

He said that last year alone, the Philippines was only able to send about 3,000 of the 5,000 nurses needed by Saudi Arabia.

Brion also said the Department of Labor and Employment and the Department of Health would also adopt a new policy in the deployment of nurses so as not to affect the operation of local hospitals and clinics.