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

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.