Monday, May 19, 2008 [ philstar.com ]
More Filipinos were hired abroad in the first four months of the year, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) reported yesterday.
Preliminary POEA data showed that from January to April, a total of 399,638 Filipino workers were deployed to various countries.
The figure was 14 percent more than the 350,520 Filipino workers sent to work overseas during the same period last year.
Of the total number of OFWs hired abroad, a majority or 256,930 were land-based and re-hired workers. Sea-based workers only accounted for 120,305.
Based on POEA data, however, the number of re-hired workers dropped by 11 percent while newly hired OFWs went up by 8.3 percent in the first four months of the year.
POEA chief Rosalinda Baldoz said the growth in deployment proved that foreign employers still prefer to employ highly skilled OFWs.
Baldoz also noted that the hiring of OFWs went up despite the prevailing shortage of manpower skills and the reported high cost of airplane fares.
Earlier, local recruitment industry warned of possible drop in the hiring of OFWs, particularly in the Middle East, due to lack of skilled workers and shortage of Middle East-bound airlines. – Mayen Jaymalin, Roemar Baltazar
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