The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) calms the worries of some aspiring overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) that job opportunities may be scarce for them this year as a result of the global financial crisis with the announcement that an estimate of 400,000 jobs are still available for them overseas.

Jennifer Manalili, POEA chief said, “Roughly we still have a balance of 400,000 or so job orders worldwide, these are job orders or requests from employers abroad for workers from the Philippines.”

Manalili was able to say that many industries are still in need of OFWs based on the report from Philippine labor offices abroad, embassies, and related agencies.

She said, "[There are] sectors affected, that's correct, but there are also other sectors that are opening up, opening their doors to migrant workers, also to Filipinos."

Manalili also said that even if there is a crisis, the need for health care workers would never wane, saying their services is "a constant need."

She said."For the health care services, we have a request from Canada, from Australia, so merong mga sectors na nagsara pero may mga sectors din naman po na remain to be buoyant in the overseas sector."

The Middle East region is another labor market that continues to demand the services of Filipino workers.

Manalili informed, "In the Middle East we have noted a rise in job orders] in the construction industries because of the mega cities that are being built," she said.

Howver POEA also informed that they revalidate overseas job orders to ensure that it will be "reflective of the true picture of the job vacancies abroad."

The secretary of DOLE, Marianito Roque said that as of January 30, the figure of OFWs that were laid off have reached 5,404 since October 2008.

The POEA head said, "We have already listed some 5,000 workers who have been retrenched or their companies have declared bankruptcy and most of them are from Taiwan, from the electronics manufacturing sector."

Of the 5,404 retrenched OFWs, the majority 4,140 are from Taiwan. Other came from the following countries: 298 from United Arab Emirates, 180 from Canada, 81 from Australia, and 74 from Korea. The host countries of remaining OFWs were not disclosed.

The Philippine government has implemented assistance programs and packages for displaced OFWs and Manalili said that POEA has an important role in the government programs.

She said, "On our part we have legal assistance desk for the workers who are returning and we already entertained more than a thousand individuals who came to POEA for assistance."

 
Manalili informed that over 1,000 cases have already been referred to them and of this number; 130-140 of them have already been settled. They have also relaed about Php 6.5 million in return for the placement fees and other costs like repatriation that OFWs paid for.

She explained, "So our consolation efforts have been largely successful and our referral system and registration system, these assistance packages are for those who desire to go abroad or be redeployed."