Is going abroad the only way?
HIS question begs follow-up queries: Way to what? For whom? Last in, first out.
For whom do the bells of going abroad toll?
Way to what? Whether to just have a job or pursue a rewarding career instead. Having a job does not lead to a career. Job is work you have to do because you need to — an activity you perform to earn money to support your immediate, basic needs. One could have various, successive jobs with different employers but never be on a career track.
A career is what you plan for and work toward to describe an individual’s journey through learning, work and other aspects of life — whether at home or overseas.
An overseas Filipino worker (OFW) who has been a contract worker for years as a mason, pipe-fitter, carpenter, office clerk, food server or caregiver is lucky to have a job.
An OFW has a job; therefore, he or she exists. But one cannot or should not make existence a goal — unless there is another, and preferably better, way.
A worker’s existence in the country’s labor force is incorporated in the nation’s labor force participation rate (LFPR), generally described as “an estimate of an economy’s active workforce … the number of people ages 16 and older who are employed or actively seeking employment, divided by the total non-institutionalized, civilian working-age population.”
From 2019 to November this year, the Philippines’ LFPR has never gone beyond 68. In the months leading to the holiday season, the labor force participation rate inches up.
The next best thing to not having a job is to be underemployed: a college graduate with a bachelor’s degree in nursing working as a nurse assistant; an accounting graduate employed as a bookkeeping clerk; or a hospitality/restaurant graduate working as a food server, maybe a barista.
Again, the textbook definition: “Underemployment is a condition in which workers are employed in less than fulltime or regular jobs or insufficient jobs for their training or economic needs. Also, underemployment is a worker’s underuse because a job does not use the skills of the worker, i.e., part-time, or leaves the worker idle.”
Before the deluge of online ads from JobStreet, Indeed.com, Glassdoor and others, there was the Manila Bulletin Sunday classified ads.
Alas, the separate pages of classified ads that Filipinos looking for work, alternative jobs, or better employment have vanished from newsstands. In fact, even newsstands themselves are now extinct. One may find the day’s newspaper in a convenience store or hospital.
When I searched for “Manila Bulletin Sunday classified ads,” the Manila Bulletin website showed links to news, business, economics, opinion, entertainment, sports, technology, lifestyle, and specials, but there were no classified ads or jobs.
However, there are Manila Bulletin Facebook pages for classified ads — just not specifically for job ads.
A news item related to jobs appeared dated May 25, 2003; the article by Ellalyn de Vera-Ruiz is headlined “SWS: 69 percent of Filipinos say finding job these days difficult.”
While SWS reported that “Filipinos have been more optimistic about job availability, the survey results pointed out that finding work has “always been hard since 2011.”
Job fairs have replaced classified ads for jobs here.
For new graduates, underemployed, out-of-work youth, or returning OFWs, job fairs held by the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) at major cities in collaboration with employers such as the SM Supermalls and Robinson Malls offer chances for jobs and maybe opportunities for career pathways.
Last December 2023, DoLE advertised over 28,000 jobs nationwide.
In a job fair, I checked out at Robinsons held by PESO Malabon last year, I saw numerous posts by companies for positions describing the educational and experience requirements.
An ad for a part-time service crew with McDonald’s requires applicants to be “at least high school graduate/college level.”
Robinsons Supermarket posted job vacancies for sales clerk, receiving clerk and cashier, all of which required at least a senior high school diploma or associate degree in any field, “preferably with 5 months experience.”
An associate degree holder “in any field” without experience would not just be underemployed but could fall a rank lower to the unemployed column. Robinsons only need nine qualified applicants.
Online ads for jobs also provide potential Filipino college graduates for the underemployed ranks.
A Starbucks ad on indeed.com for a barista lists the following qualifications to be considered:
“Candidate must possess at least a bachelor’s/college degree, food and beverage services management, hospitality/tourism/hotel management, business studies/ administration/management, marketing, food technology/ nutrition/dietetics or equivalent.”
Simulating a job hunter, I checked out PhilJobNet, “the Philippines’ official job-matching and LMI portal.”
The homepage lists 2,580 job openings, topped by “call center agents, cashier, service crew, accounting assistant, delivery driver.”
On the other side of the available job ledger comes the out-of-work, laid-off workers who lost their jobs.
During the same search day, Gov. ph reported employment losses in the manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, agriculture, and forestry sectors in the nine-month period ending September 2023: a total of 1,371,000 Filipinos joined the unemployed in four sectors alone.
Living average life employed
The top five positions on the PhilJobs.net site (and also on job postings during job fairs) with the average wages (from Indeed.com, Glassdoor, jobstreet.com.ph) are shown in Table 1.
The average monthly wage of domestic workers in Saudi Arabia is P22,530. Dubai offers a tad higher at P22,987.
In the five countries with permanent residency programs (and workers’ rights are protected), the lowest entry-level salary (also using indeed.com and Google search) shows the wide gap — based on the current exchange rate with the corresponding currency, as shown in Table 2.
Where are the jobs there?
The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) provides a listing of approved job orders from employers
accredited by assigned labor attaches in specific countries at https:// www.dmw.gov.ph/archives/cgi-bin/ JobVacancies/jobsByCty.asp.
DMW advises job seekers to verify the remaining jobs from each job order, emphasizing that employers and/or licensed recruitment agencies are not allowed to charge recruitment/ deployment fees from applicants.
Australia has 137,100 different work visa categories, and New Zealand has 234,939. Canada issued 608,420 work permits in 2022; the UK granted 321,101 work visas in the same year.
The US has a yearly allocation of 65,000 temporary H-1B visas plus an additional 20,000 for H-1B exempt: 66,000 for non-agricultural workers and an unspecified number for agricultural workers. Occasionally, the USCIS announces supplemental work visa numbers, i.e., 64,716 additional H-2B for 2024.
In addition, the US offers 140,000 direct green cards for skilled workers, professionals and entrepreneurs in the five employment-based preference categories.
Working while studying is another option. International students in the five DestiNations are allowed to work at least 20 hours per week. This direct access to employers usually leads to the offer of full-time employment, earning the student additional points towards permanent residency.
And because a career’s upward trajectory in these countries is essentially based on what — instead of whom — you know, moving from barista to front desk, assistant manager or events manager is not just possible but probable.
A retail salesperson could look forward to becoming a sales and service supervisor or middle management occupation.
Laborers and helpers can focus on becoming eligible for technical trades positions and even middle management occupations in trade and transportation by taking up work-related courses and then obtaining certifications from the province, state, or territorial authority.
As an added bonus, once permanent residents, a skilled worker or professional could sponsor family members to join them as immigrants with health insurance, education-related benefits and scholarships, earning not just decent wages but the proper recognition and respect for their talents and skills as responsible participants in the labor force.
Working abroad is not the only way to better jobs and career prospects, but it sure is a better alternative.