Firms have a hard time finding skilled call-center agents, technicians–PSA

FILIPINO firms are having difficulties hiring competent and skilled technical and professional personnel and call-center agents, according to the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

The PSA’s hard-to-fill occupations data showed there were also few applicants who applied in certain positions, applicants lack experience and many expected high salaries.

“Other reasons cited were lack of professional license, location or work schedule, and competition with overseas jobs,” the PSA said. Data showed there is a demand for 18,160 technical and commercial sales representatives and some 16,083 call-center agents.

Local establishments also found it difficult to hire some 4,144 systems analysts and designers; 3,702 accounting and bookkeeping clerks; and 3,355 college, university and higher-education teaching professionals. “Job openings which were difficult to fill constituted 17.5 percent of the total. This means that for every six vacancies only one was hard to fill,” the PSA explained.

Data showed that there were 753,092 vacancies in 15,986 establishments that had job openings in the January 2013-to-June 2014 period. Of the total number of vacancies, 131,471 job openings were considered hard-to-fill, while 621,621 were “easy-to-fill” positions in the January 2013-to-June 2014 period.

The PSA the said majority, or 98,721, of the hard-to-fill jobs were only in three major occupation groups—professionals, with 38,214 job openings; technicians and associate professionals, 32,285; and clerks, 28,222. Among professional vacancies, the top 2 were systems analysts and designers, and college, university and higher-education teaching professionals.

The top job openings among technicians and associate professionals, most vacancies were in technical and commercial sales representatives; administrative secretaries and related associate professionals, 1,154; and safety, health and quality inspectors, 1,051 vacancies.

Among clerks, there were only three kinds of job openings. Apart from call-center agents and accounting and bookkeeping clerks, local firms also found it “too difficult” to hire receptionists and information clerks, with 2,765 vacancies.

Data were obtained from the Integrated Survey on Labor and Employment, a nationwide sample survey covering 8,399 establishments with 20 or more workers. The PSA said the reference period covered the months from January 2013 to June 2014. –Cai Ordinario, Businessmirror