More OFWs hired despite global financial crisis

MANILA, Philippines - More Filipino workers were hired in various countries abroad despite the prevailing global financial crisis and hostilities in the Middle East region, the government said yesterday.

Administrator Carlos Cao of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said deployment of land- and sea-based Filipino workers for the first 10 months of the year posted a five percent growth compared to the same period last year.

“Our deployment statistics are still very good even as we face so many challenges this year,” he said. “In fact, we have sent 1,350,000 Filipino workers to over 200 countries in the first 10 months of 2011.”

Cao said overseas deployment from January to October this year was five percent higher than the recorded 1,281,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) deployed during the same period in 2010.

Based on POEA preliminary data, land-based workers comprised the greater bulk of the total deployment in the first 10 months of 2011, he added.

Cao said Saudi Arabia hired the most number of Filipino workers despite its ongoing policy that requires Saudi employers to hire more local workers.

In the first 10 months of the year, Saudi Arabia hired over 200,000 Filipino workers, he added.

Cao said compared to the previous year, more highly skilled and less vulnerable workers were hired.

“The situation has changed for the better as production workers and other related skills are now beginning to catch up and tend to overtake the hiring of household service workers,” he said.

“We have also observed an increasing number in the hiring of male household service workers who are less prone to abuses and if we are going to this kind of trend, this is much better.”

Cao said the government is negotiating with various host countries to forge new bilateral agreements that could provide better protection for OFWs.

He expressed confidence that the upward trend in deployment of Filipino workers would continue into the coming year.