Drop in OFW hiring seen in Q2

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) warned the government yesterday that the hiring of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) is likely to decline in the coming months due to the continuing political unrest in the Middle East and Libya.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said they expect fewer Filipino workers to be deployed in the second quarter of the year because of ongoing crises in the Middle East and Libya.

“We don’t see an immediate solution to the Middle East crisis and because of this foreign employers are expected to hold back on hiring workers for a while,” Baldoz disclosed.

Although the political turmoil in Libya and other Middle East countries started early this year, Baldoz said, the country is yet to feel its negative impact until this time.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) posted a significant increase in the deployment of OFWs to various countries in the first quarter of the year.

POEA administrator Carlos Cao Jr. said the agency recorded the deployment of 406,921 OFWs last January, higher than 389,942 workers deployed during the same period last year.

But based on POEA records the deployment appeared to be on the downtrend with a total of 130,000 deployment in February and 85,000 in March.

Cao said that the deployment of OFWs remained at a high level despite the Middle East crisis.

“We are very hopeful because even with the crisis, our deployment in the first quarter is still in good standing,” Cao said while adding that foreign employers continue to express their preference for Filipino workers.

Cao said several groups of employers from Qatar, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom met with POEA officials recently to express their intention to recruit more OFWs in the coming months.

“Hong Kong is a new market destination, where we can deploy our workers who were displaced in Libya,” Cao said.