800,000 Overseas Jobs for Professionals and Skilled Workers

The next three years will be favorable for all Filipinos who are hoping to land a good job overseas. According to the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) an estimate of 800 thousand job opportunities awaits OFWs until the year 2009.

The secretary of DoLE Arturo Brion said that high-end jobs would be available in various industries like telecommunications, information technology, medical, tourism, and construction.

The DoLE chief said “The prospects are bright for the next three years (for OFWs) because we have a conservative estimate of more than 800,000 high-end jobs open in the next three years and these are over and above what we have already deployed.”

With more opportunities opening abroad, the number of OFWs are expected to further increase. The government targets to send 1.9 million Filipino workers for employment in high-end jobs until 2009. They are eyeing deployment of OFWS for countries in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe.

Rustico Dela Fuente, labor attaché based in Saudi Arabia informed that there would be more construction-related jobs available for Filipinos. The demand for workers are sure to increase over the next five years in Saudi Arabia with the construction of four large economic cities. Workers that would be in-demand are engineers, welders, pipe fitters and surveyors. Construction workers, engineers, and architects are not the only occupations needed as there would also be openings for accountants, market analysts, and economists.

Reydeluz Conferido, Labor Attaché in Japan, said that from 2006 to 2011, Japan would need 8,000 to 10,000 marine officers. According to Conferido, other available jobs in Japan are computer-aided designers, car designers, and telecommunications engineers.

Likewise, other countries like China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei would also be needing the services and expertise of OFWs. The first three countries would need workers for their tourism industries while Brunei would hire workers to work in their oil and gas companies.

Filipino workers are also in-demand in Europe and America. Manuel Imson, Labor Attaché in Geneva, informed that Europe and USA will need workers in the information technology, manufacturing, medical, health, construction, production, banking, finance, and maritime sectors.