Number of displaced OFWs slightly up in March

Not all Filipino workers who lost their jobs as a result of the global financial crisis are considered “permanently displaced,” according to an official of the Department of Labor and Employment on Friday.

Reydeluz Conferido, assistant secretary of the Labor department, said of some 40,000 displaced workers, 11,000 are “permanently displaced” while 30,000 have been “temporarily displaced” and may be recalled back to their jobs.

He said the 40,000 displaced workers are those affected by flexible working hours.

Conferido further said that the number of retrenched overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) has increased to 6,000 this month from 5,700 in February.

“But those displaced OFWs are usually by contracts, so we cannot tell if these are temporary or permanent displacements. They have to look for other contracts,” Conferido told reporters.

He confirmed the report of the National Economic and Development Authority that some of the companies that laid off workers have resumed operations as the United States and Asian economies are slowly picking up.

“About 80,000 jobs can be made available in this Jobapalooza,” he said, referring to the program launched at the Labor department administrative building, which aims to generate employments through a month-long job fair starting May 1.

“Sixty-thousand jobs are registered in philjob.net while 20,000 in Jobstreet,” Conferido added. Jobphil.net and jobstreet.com are online partners of the Labor department.

According to him, there are also 2,500 to 5,000 recruitment agencies that cooperated with the Labor department for the scheduled job fairs in May.

The job fairs, according to Undersecretary Rosalinda Baldoz, would also provide skills training and livelihood programs to address the need of jobseekers in matching their skills with the available jobs in the market.

Those considered under the category of “hot jobs” are from the business process outsourcing industries, call center agents, computer and software technicians, sales and marketing representatives, accountants and human resource personnel.
–Bernice Camille V. Bauzon, Manila Times