Decline in deployment of OFWs to continue in 2019

The deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFW) will continue to decline this year, a recruitment analyst said.

Emmanuel Geslani said the downtrend was first seen in 2017 and is expected to continue in 2019.

In a statement, Geslani said he believes that 2019 deployment of OFWs will be no different than those seen in 2017 and 2018.

“Deployment of OFWs is expected to further decline in 2019,” said Geslani.

He said this is mainly due to the economies of Middle East countries, which is the largest labor market for OFWs, still staying flat due to lower oil prices.

“The economies of some Middle East countries, especially Saudi Arabia, is predicted to stay flat with lower crude oil prices. And that is bad news for OFWs, whose main market is Saudi Arabia,” said Geslani.

“For other Middle East countries like Kuwait, Oman, UAE, Iraq and Iran, economies will stay flat due to the lower oil prices in the middle of the year,” he added.

In addition, the recruitment consultant cited the growing preference of Middle East countries to hire their own citizens.

“Saudization is being implemented at a faster pace with previous white collar jobs for expatriates now being taken over by Saudi nationals,” pointed Geslani.

show that in 2017, the deployment of OFWs went down by nine percent while another eight to 10 percent decline is seen for 2018.

The decline, Geslani noted, comes after 10 years of continuous growth in OFW deployment rate.

Nevertheless, he believes that there are other markets that may still provide employment opportunities for OFWs.

These include Qatar, Japan, China, New Zealand, and some parts of Europe.

“There is still a silver lining for our OFWs,” he said.

Geslani cited the massive construction boom in Qatar brought by the ongoing preparations for the FIFA World Cup in 2022 as prompting a high demand for construction workers and, subsequently, hotel and service workers.

In April, Geslani said Japan is set to open its doors to OFWs with working visas good for five years in 14 sectors, particularly in nursing, construction, agriculture, manufacturing and other minor fields.

Meanwhile, he related that New Zealand will continue to attract construction and farming workers, while Australia will be needing construction workers.

He also noted that China is currently in need of household service workers and English teachers, while Germany needs nurses. /