More than 2,000 E. Visayas job hunters qualified

PALO, Leyte, May 2 (PNA) – At least 2,021 jobseekers have been identified as qualified during the Labor Day job fairs in this town and in Ormoc City. 

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said on Tuesday that of the 2,905 job hunters interviewed, majority of them have been categorized by employers as fit to fill up vacant positions. 

Of the total qualified workers, about 1,500 are for local employment. Some 83 workers were hired on the spot and 104 applicants have been identified as near hired.

Unlike last year, the labor department had not set targets for hire-on-the-spot applicants. 

“The hiring is already at the digression of employers. We have to monitor within 30 days after the job fairs if how many will really be hired because there are medical examinations, qualifying examinations, and more interviews,” said DOLE Eastern Visayas Regional Director Exequiel Sarcauga. 

More than 21,000 local and overseas jobs were up for grabs during the employment fair in this town and in Ormoc City in northern Leyte. Of the total vacancies, 2,000 are for local jobs.

For the local jobs, participating employers were hardware stores, retail shops, car sales, manpower services, food chain, government agency, hospital, private school, mobile phone shop, lending firm, pawnshop, and funeral parlor.

The region, composed of six provinces – Leyte, Samar, Biliran, Southern Leyte, Eastern and Northern Samar - has about two million people in the labor force. The region’s employment rate is at 93.6 percent as of January 2017.

Although jobless rate is low at only 6.4 percent, underemployment rate is still high at 23.2 percent, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

The PSA defines the underemployed as “employed persons who express the desire to have additional hours of work in their present job, or to have additional job, or to have a new job with longer working hours.”(Sarwell Q. Meniano/PNA)