DOLE: PH job vacancies now at 1.3 million

MANILA – There are more than 1.3 million job vacancies in the country for 2014, according to the government’s online jobs portal Phil-JobNet.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said this figure is 100,000 higher than what was posted the previous year.

“Based on a preliminary report of the Bureau of Local Employment, the 1,384,728 job vacancies posted by employers in the Phil-JobNet from 1 January to 30 November 2013 surpassed by 21.8 percent the 1,137,551 opportunities they posted during the same period in 2012,” Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz earlier said in a statement.

Among the most in demand jobs are sales clerk, factory worker, promo salesperson, call center agent, cashier, service crew, technical support staff, merchandiser, customer service assistant and promo girl.

Most of the openings come from several industries like services, construction, tourism, and information, technology and communications, and the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.

“Hindi lang ang employment ang tumataas, kung hindi pati ang quality of employment. Mas maraming napupunta sa wage employment, which is an indicator of quality,” said DOLE spokesman Atty. Nikon Fameronag.

But despite the number of available jobs, the government admits that a lot still has to be done to address the problem of jobs skills mismatch.

In the BPO companies for example, only 30 to 40 are accepted for every 100 applicants because of the lack of several competencies like communication and critical thinking skills.

“We would like to look at this as a challenge, the reason why it is challenging is because the demand is so strong,” said Gillian Joyce Virata, senior executive director of the IT and Business Process Association of the Philippines

As the demand for the countries’ BPO industry grows, the government, academe and industry continues with its training to address the problem of mismatch especially as BPO companies target to employ 1.3 million Filipinos by 2016.

From January to November 2013, 203,639 jobseekers who applied for the jobs posted in the Phil-JobNet have received assistance from the Bureau of Local Employment. –From a report by Pia Gutierrez, ABS-CBN News