2,788 applicants hired immediately at nationwide job fairs

MANILA, Philippines - Many of the more than 40,000 new graduates and other jobseekers who went to the different government-initiated job fairs nationwide were hired on the spot.

Dominique Tutay, Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) director, said they have recorded a total of 2,788 hired on the spot (HOTS) out of the 47,896 job applicants who participated in the simultaneous job fairs.

Of the total number of HOTS, 1,779 landed in local employment, while the rest were hired for overseas jobs, she added.

Tutay said 21,588 were also “near-hires” or just needing further interview to be hired.

“DOLE will be closely monitoring the applications of the near hires to ensure that they would eventually be hired and added to the list of employed,” she said.

Most applicants were young and female, although a number were much older and currently employed, Tutay said.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz is confident more jobseekers will be hired compared to last year’s job fairs.

“We are looking forward to surpass last year’s HOTS records based on the current figure,” she said.

As early as 7 a.m., jobseekers were already in line for the more than 140,000 vacancies in the job fairs.

Applicant Harold James Trestiza, 20, said he just completed an Information Technology degree last March. With four other classmates, Trestiza joined the fair in the hope of being hired.

Forty-six-year-old Jubillee Earl Duga said he has been looking for a new job for more than a year. He used to be a contractual worker in a Makati hotel.

Baldoz dismissed criticisms that the job fairs are just a temporary solution to the growing unemployment rate.

“We have recorded thousands of HOTS and more are expected to be hired so our job fair is helping to curb the unemployment rate,” she said.

Baldoz said the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) is undertaking a training for work scholarship program, while the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) is revising college curriculum to align it with the needs of industry.

TESDA director-general Joel Villanueva said they are coming out with a campaign to raise public awareness on the in-demand jobs and encourage young people to take up related courses.

TESDA held a video contest for the campaign, he added.

Villanueva said they have chosen the winners after months of nationwide search.

“We hope the extraordinary stories of ordinary people captured on video, like our finalists, will rouse other people to believe that technical vocational education can lead to fruitful results,” he said.

The top 20 entry senders are composed of 10 technical vocational graduates and 10 institutions which submitted the best videos documenting their success stories in taking the technical vocational education and training path.

Cash prizes and scholarship vouchers totaling P2 million are at stake in the nationwide contest.

Ban on age discrimination

A petition has been launched online via www.change.org for the passage of a law banning age discrimination in the workplace.

Susan Ople of Blas Ople Policy Center said several anti-age discrimination bills are now pending at the Senate and the House of Representatives.

“Age discrimination impedes the administration’s mission to bring about inclusive growth,” she said.

“It has become so prevalent that even for messenger, applicants that are older than 30 years old are being turned away.

“This practice unjustly shifts the burden on young workers, while their parents are having a difficult time holding on to their jobs or applying for better positions due to such age-specific requirements.” 

Ople attributed the low hiring rate in yesterday’s job fairs and the growing number of unemployed in the country to age discrimination.

“Over 30 countries around the world have an anti-age discrimination law or policy in place, but here in the Philippines, age discrimination is the 800-pound gorilla in the workplace that no one talks about, but thousands of job applicants and employees experience this everyday,” she said.

Ople said age discrimination has become a major problem even for OFWs who have gained enormous experience and skills while working in a more competitive environment abroad.

Workers above 30, including returning OFWs, find difficulty to get a job because of age discrimination, she added.