Employment – International

KUWAIT CITY: About 17,000 expatriate workers have cancelled their residence permits and left Kuwait in the first half of 2009 due to the impact of the global economic crisis, a Kuwaiti daily said on Thursday. Quoting informed sources in the ministry of social affairs and labor, Al-Seyassah said that more than 70 percent of the…

MANILA, Philippines—A top level Guam Senate team visited the country last week to finalize details on the hiring of 20,000 Filipino skilled workers for the construction of military headquarters in Guam beginning July 2010, the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) said in a statement Thursday.

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT , Philippines  — Visiting lawmakers from Guam said Subic Bay would make an ideal training center for the thousands of Filipino skilled workers needed in the US territory, where “ the largest US military buildup since the end of World War II” will be made.

PHILIPPINE AND TAIWAN labor authorities have agreed to extend their memorandum of understanding on the Special Hiring Program for Taiwan (SHPT) beyond March 30 next year, if no new agreement is approved and signed by Taipei and Manila before this date.

MANILA, Philippines — As the global financial crisis continue to wreak havoc across the global, companies in Australia might lay off foreign migrant workers, including Filipinos, Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Rod Smith said.

TAIPEI—With the thawing of once icy relations between China and Taiwan, new opportunities might just open up for Filipinos who want to work overseas but are not happy with just scrubbing floors and toiling in sweatshops.

The Philippines and Taiwan have extended the existing memorandum of understanding on the Special Hiring Program for Taiwan (SHPT), the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (MECO) said.

MANILA, Philippines – At least 50,000 Filipino construction and other skilled workers are set to be hired in Guam to construct a large military base in that US territory, the government said yesterday.

Filipino workers may soon have a hard time landing any of the thousands of job openings in Guam due to a US lawmaker’s recent proposal for 70 percent of the employment opportunities in the American territory to be allotted to US citizens and the rest to be filled by foreign workers.

MANILA, Philippines — The 15,000 up to 20,000 job openings in Guam being eyed by the Philippine government for overseas Filipinos workers are imperiled by a United States legislator who wants most of the jobs given to US citizens, according to a consultant for overseas job recruitment.

Despite the worldwide recession, more than 150,000 jobs are being offered in the United Kingdom to foreign workers, including Filipinos, who will qualify under the new points-based system introduced in 2008 by the UK Border and Immigration System.

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino workers continue to sneak into Lebanon even as negotiations for the lifting of the deployment ban there remained uncertain.

DÉJÀ VU describes the financial meltdown’s impact on migrant workers. Repatriation, more border controls, punitive penalties for undocumented migrant workers, and no new or higher levels of employment in host countries will be the same this year as has happened in the Asian financial crisis of 1997, according to Dr. Maruja Asis, Scalabrini Migration Center…

Filipino women now outnumber the men in working and settling abroad.

GENEVA: Rising unemployment as the global recession worsens is damping flows of migrant workers and many are returning to their home countries.

Special Report: OFWs cope with crisis    About two million Filipinos working in the Middle East will not be spared from the global financial crisis by petro dollars as oil-exporting countries post a mere 3.6-percent growth this year.

CEBU, Philippines – The Philippine Overseas Employment Agency saw an increase in the number of applicants for job vacancies abroad in the first half of this year compared to 2008, contrary to reports that less openings are being catered due to the financial crisis that struck the world starting late last year.

The government expects continuing demand for Filipino workers abroad as a result of hiring agreements forged between the Philippines and other countries that hire foreign labor.

Spain, despite suffering from the global economic crisis, was still in need of foreign nurses including Filipinos, the Department of Foreign Affairs announced Wednesday.

The business pages of both the Philippine Daily Inquirer and the Philippine Star carried almost identical headlines the other day. “Remittances surged to $1.48B in May,” said the Inquirer. “OFW remittances hit record high in May,” said The Star. One cannot miss the celebratory tone in which Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Amando Tetangco Jr.…

MANILA, Philippines – The demand for nurses abroad has started to decline, while opportunities for graduates of technical courses like engineering are on the rise, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said yesterday.

99,000 jobs still open in Qatar MANILA, Philippines—Norway is open to Filipino professionals from the fields of engineering and information technology seeking to land a job there, Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) Secretary Marianito Roque said on Monday.

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Philippine – Advocates of “Saudization” are again pushing for a cap on the hiring of foreign workers in Saudi Arabia, the biggest employer of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). Abdul Rahman Al-Qahtani, leader of the “Saudi Arabia is only for Saudis” campaign, told Arab News that the Labor Ministry should strictly enforce Article 3 of the…

MANILA, Philippines – The local recruitment industry yesterday warned of a massive drop in the hiring of Filipino workers in the Middle East with the implementation of a stricter regulation on the deployment of low-skilled workers abroad.

MANILA, Philippines – Employment opportunities are getting brighter for jobless Filipinos and other health workers.

MANILA, Philippines—The bad news: As next year’s scheduled relocation of the United States military base from Okinawa, Japan to Guam gives Filipinos seeking overseas employment hope, they may not get priority for construction jobs, a recruitment specialist said Sunday.

MANILA, Philippines – Guam is opening its door to at least 25,000 foreign workers including Filipinos over the next five years, a ranking official said yesterday.

Filipino workers can land jobs in Guam as the US territory was in need of about 15,000 workers for infrastructure projects that would pave the way for the transfer of US military bases there, the governor of Guam said Tuesday.

ZAMBOANGA CITY: The Philippines is virtually selling its Muslim women to work as housemaids in Malaysia. This after Indonesia recently announced a temporary ban on sending domestic helpers to Malaysia after a recent case of maid-abuse.