More Workers Prefer to Work Here Than Abroad: More Women Apply for Local Employment; Men Dominate Overseas Employment Applicants

In last Friday’s Labor Day job fairs, conducted in 56 venues all over the country, Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz said women accounted for the bulk of registrants for job vacancies in the local labor market, while men preferred overseas jobs.

“There were 71,922 registered applicants for the Labor Day job fairs. There were more female registrants, 54.9 percent, or 39,485, than male registrants who accounted for 45.1 percent, or 32,437; and women, more than men, preferred jobs in the local labor market,” said Baldoz in a press release after the Bureau of Local Employment submitted an initial report on the results of the 1 May nationwide job fairs.

“If this is an indication, it shows our women are staying—rather than leaving—the country, which is good,” observed Baldoz.

Of the registered applicants, 19,408 were in Region 4-A; 12,147 were from Region 3; and 8,842 were from Region 11.

The BLE, headed by Director Dominique R. Tutay, reported that an overwhelming 79.22 percent of registered women applicants would like to work in the country rather than abroad and 55.3 percent of them did, indeed, applied for local jobs.

On the other hand, registered men applicants who expressed preference to work abroad reached 55.3 percent of whom 51 percent did apply for vacant overseas jobs.

Baldoz also noted from the BLE report that for this year’s Labor Day job fairs, about three out of four registered applicants (74.74 percent) were qualified or were referred for outright job interview.

“One of five applicants, or 19.3 percent, was a qualified overseas applicant, while the remaining four applicants, or 80.7 percent, were qualified local jobseekers. Again, more females, 58.1 percent, were qualified for local employment than males, 41.9 percent, but conversely, more males, 52.9 percent, were qualified for overseas positions,” said Baldoz.

She also said the region with the highest number of qualified applicants were Region 4-A (12,487); Region 3 (10,525); and Region 11 (3,774).

She qualified, though, that preliminary estimates show that Region 7 posted a higher number of qualified applicants, but this is still being validated.

The BLE further reported that the number of interviewed applicants exceeded the number of those who were qualified.

“This indicates that a good number of applicants applied for numerous positions during the job fairs,” Baldoz said, adding:

“Almost eighty percent interviewees were aiming for local positions, while the remaining 20.7 percent were aspiring for overseas jobs. Again, women (59.2 percent) tended to get interviewed more for local positions than the men 40.8 percent. For overseas, it was the other way around as more males (54.3 percent) were interviewed than their female counterpart (45.7 percent).

The top three regions with the most number of interviewees were Region 3 (14,221); NCR (10,452); and Region 6 (7,929),” Baldoz said.

Baldoz expressed satisfaction on these data, saying that the share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector is one of the indicators in the Philippines’ Millennium Development Goals, specifically on promoting gender equality and empowering women.

“That women seemed to participate more in the labor market is a boost to our pursuit of our MDGs on gender equality and empowering our women,” the woman leader of the DOLE finally said.

Source: www.dole.gov.ph