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THE
impending recession in the United States that is feared
to cause a global economic slowdown may even benefit the
country’s marketing of labor skills, the head of the
Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA)
said.
POEA
administrator Rosalinda Baldoz said the US economic
slowdown will have “no effect” on the Philippines’
deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) since
most jobs that are available for them are the ones that
are too “dirty, dangerous and difficult” for foreign
nationals.
Baldoz
noted that developed nations like the US and those in
the Middle East continue to seek an audience with
Philippine labor officials to negotiate for Filipino
labor because they lack skilled workers.
“They
keep on coming to us for a memorandum of agreement
because they like the systematic and organized scheme of
recruitment that we implement,” she said.
The US
dollar’s performance has been weak for many months, amid
fears that its economy is headed for a recession, which
would affect the global economy.
In 2007,
the POEA processed a total of 33,000 job orders for the
US and 21,000 a year earlier.
Baldoz
said prospects for jobs for OFWs are also bright in the
Middle East, such as Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates,
Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman. These require skilled
workers in construction, tourism, retail, energy,
telecommunications and information technology (IT).
Last
year, a total of 1.073 million OFWs were deployed
abroad. In 2006, deployed workers breached the one
million mark for the first time when a total of 1.062
OFWs left the country.
Asian
countries, such as South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore,
Brunei and Malaysia, are also expected to continue
hiring Filipino workers in construction and
ship-building, IT and health care, factories,
entertainment, and managerial and supervisory jobs in
the gaming industry.
Meanwhile, Australia and New Zealand are also expected
to hire construction workers, health staff, IT
professionals, hotel workers and teachers. |
