DoLE-6 to hold job fair for repatriated OFWs from Kuwait amid growing unemployment rate in Western Visayas
THE DEPARTMENT of Labor and Employment Western Visayas office (DoLE-6) is preparing to hold a job fair for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in the region who were recently repatriated from Kuwait. “There will be a jobs fair that will be done for those returning OFWs para makahanap sila ng trabaho (so they can find work),” said DoLE-6 Director Johnson G. Cañete. He said the activity will help returning OFWs find jobs. The death of OFW Joanna Demafelis of Sara, Iloilo, whose body was found in a freezer in an abandoned apartment in Kuwait, has prompted President Rodrigo R. Duterte to order a travel ban to the Gulf state. Mr. Cañete said livelihood assistance from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) will also be given to repatriated workers. “If there are undocumented OFWs that arrive and will be repatriated we have also the National Reintegration Center for OFWs who will give services. The assistance DoLE provides is limited as the beneficiaries should first get their benefits from OWWA,” he said.
UNEMPLOYMENT
Meanwhile, Mr. Cañete said addressing unemployment remains a major challenge in Western Visayas, as job opportunities “are not that much.” “Every year, we produce graduates so the tendency is for the unemployment rate to go higher. We find that most of our graduates will find themselves unemployed at the end of the day,” he said. Based on data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the unemployment rate in the region increased from 3.2% in October 2016 to 5.6% in the same period last year. The number of unemployed individuals in the region has also ballooned to 183,000 in 2017 from 108,000 the previous year. “Truly, Western Visayas has a problem with unemployment,” said Mr. Cañete. The higher unemployment rate, he added, is also partly due to jobs mismatch. The DoLE official said they are working closely with other government agencies to address the situation. —