Labor exodus to put brake on strong growth — study

The government should start measures to halt labor export as it would need skills and talents to keep the economy growing, according to a University of the Philippines (UP) study.

The challenge to the government is to regulate or stem the outward flow of critical skills, talents and professionals — that is jeopardizing growth and sustainability of local industries — and chart the national agro-industrial roadmap, according to the study.

Many countries have been identifying and strategizing their current and future skills needs in relation to their overall economic development.

The Philippines has not undertaken a similar forward-looking exercise, a newly-released study on Migration of Skills, Talents and Expertise: Development Challenges for the Philippines by Dr. Rene Ofreneo of UP School of Labor and Industrial Relations, along with Joy Hernandez and Isabelo Samonte, has pointed out.

Such exercise, according to the study, is imperative as there are alarming concerns, specifically in relation to the impact of the skills, talents and professionals (STP) drain or outflow on Philippine-based industries, whether producing for the home or export markets.

Among these concerns are STP migration has been depriving the local industry, both export-oriented and domestic-led, with the needed supply of skills, talents and expertise. This means local industry is becoming less and less competitive due to “HRD shortages” in critical areas of business or production performance.

Also, STP migration can kill the economy — at least, in two ways. The first is the so-called “Dutch disease.”

The Philippines has become dependent on the OFW remittances and has stifled or weakened the national drive to build up local industry and agriculture, whose weaknesses and failure to develop were ironically also at the roots of the migration boom. Thus, the “abundance” in remittances has instead encouraged the growth of service industries catering to the consumption requirements of OFW families.

The other way migration subverts the growth of local industry is through the STP exodus, particularly the outflow of mission-critical STP, the study pointed out.

“Mission-critical skills” refer to skills possessed by personnel in charge of making production or business literally run e.g., doctors/nurses for the health sector, IT engineers/programmers for the IT industry, pilots for the aviation industry, production engineers for manufacturing, accountants/auditors for the financial services and so on. –Ayen Infante, Daily Tribune