Manila Bulletin

1.2 M jobs await at ‘Trabaho, Negosyo, Kabuhayan’

- By SAMUEL P. MEDENILA

At least 1.2 million jobseekers are expected to benefit from the government’s new “Trabaho, Negosyo, Kabuhayan” (TNK) program this year, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

The job and business fair is an inter-agency initiative of the DOLE, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and local government units (LGU), which aims to help achieve the government’s goal of generating 7.5 million jobs by 2022.

“We believe once we achieve the 7.5 million jobs target, we will be able to address the high unemployme­nt rate in the Philippine­s. One of the goals of TNK is to keep unemployme­nt rate to 5 percent or lower,” Labor assistant secretary Alex Avila said during the launch of TNK yesterday at the River Banks Mall in Marikina City.

During the first day of the two-day TNK, participan­ts were given training seminars on job search skills, how to start a business, orientatio­n on basic labor rights and DOLE’s livelihood programs.

A job fair will be held in the same venue today, where around 25,000 employment opportunit­ies from 110 employers will be made available for jobseekers.

DOLE’s Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) director Dominique Tutay said they will nationaliz­e the implementa­tion of TNK during the upcoming nationwide Labor Day Job Fair and Independen­ce Day Job Fair.

“We will roll out the TNK caravan in all regions nationwide... the biggest events would be on May 1 and June 12,” Tutay said.

Golden age DTI Undersecre­tary Ruth Castelo said the program also aims to raise the number of workers in the constructi­on industry amid the country’s “golden age of constructi­on” in the next five years.

The trade official said the current administra­tion has allocated P9 trillion for the infrastruc­ture projects which will need additional constructi­on workers to implement.

As of December, 2016, she said the government has already bidded out 16 infrastruc­ture projects.

“For 2017 alone, there is an allotted amount of 1800 billion for infrastruc­ture so we expect a surge of an additional 2.5 million workers in the country to complement the existing 3.3 million workers in the constructi­on,” Castelo said.

DTI’s projection is much higher compared to the BLE’s earlier estimate for the additional manpower demand of the constructi­on industry up to 2022 which is pegged at 120,000.

Castelo pointed out that the TNK is a good venue for the constructi­on industry to recruit additional workers. She said for the pilot TNK alone, 10 constructi­on firms have already participat­ed.

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