The Middle East region has always been a favorite destination of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia consistently tops the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration’s (POEA’s list of top OFW destinations worldwide. However, the year 2007 starts carrying a promise that the coming years would be exceptionally good for OFWs.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) announced that more jobs will be available for OFWS in the Middle East countries like Bahrain, UAE, Lebanon, and others.

For the next three years in Bahrain, there is an estimate of 8,600 job opportunities. In United Arab Emirates (UAE) there is an estimate of 44,340 job opportunities while there are 32,041 in Kuwait. An estimate of 42, 851 jobs awaits OFWs in Qatar while there are 10,500 jobs in Oman. There are also 1, 000 employment opportunities in Lebanon, 600 in Jordan, and 7,500 in Libya. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has the most number of jobs with 360,000.

The available jobs offer better salary and does not include the demand for domestic helpers. The government agency (DOLE) aims to deploy OFWs to quality jobs overseas.

According to a source from DOLE, "The Philippines overall is looking to fill the projected manpower demand of more than half a million jobs in nine Middle Eastern countries over the next three years, as a boom in the jobs market is expected once again in the important region."

The demand for workers would be for the following industries: energy, petrochemical, construction, manufacturing, telecommunications, hotels and restaurants, aviation, steel, tourism, medical and service industries.