Skills mismatch still hounds labor market

The People Management Association of the Philippines-Cebu has lamented on the mismatch between the graduates produced by universities and the talents needed by the industry nowadays.

In an interview yesterday, PMAP-Cebu president Michael Godinez pointed out the big gap between the supply of graduates and what the industry actually demands in terms of talents.

"There is no shortage of jobs. The problem is on skills mismatch," Godinez said.

He stressed that companies are challenged to fill up job vacancies with the right talent.

The PMAP official said that educational institutions are producing graduates whose degree courses are not what the industry actually needs nowadays.

"The jobs are there. But there is a lack of right talents to fill those jobs," he noted.

"We are reaching out to schools and building relationships with them to address this," he said.

Based on data from Cebu-based jobs site Mynimo.com, the industries that experience applicant shortage include education, BPO, sales and marketing, retail, and healthcare.

Thousands of Filipinos graduate from college every year but the lack of talent to fill up positions continues to be the biggest challenge for human resource managers, Godinez further said.

The Philippine labor market has continually failed to fully absorb the thousands of graduates produced annually by universities and colleges throughout the country because of jobs mismatch. As a result, new batches contribute to a high single-digit unemployment rate, forcing young skilled workers to find work abroad. Human resource executives attribute the situation to the so-called talent mismatch, a phenomenon where the educated workers produced do not fit the kinds of jobs the economy creates.

Fresh batches of workers usually end up in jobs they did not go to school for.