3,000 job seekers flock Davao’s Independence Day job fair

By Carina L Cayon

Thursday 14th of June 2012

DAVAO CITY, June 14 (PIA) -- Around 3,000 jobseekers attended Davao’s 2012 Kalayaan Job Fair held on June 12 in celebration of the 114th Independence Day.

A total of 394 applicants were hired out of the 3,166 registered applicants across the region.

As of 7:00 pm on June 12, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE-11) reported that 136 of the newly hired aspirants have been employed by local companies, while 258 of them have found jobs from overseas firms.

DOLE-11 information officer Joy C. Flordelis said that 1,560 applicants have qualified for final interview, of which 442 are eligible for work abroad and the 1,118 for the local vacancies.

Flordelis said that the number of job seekers who were referred and interviewed during the job fair event reached to 2,136.

There were 1,427 who were referred and interviewed for local employment, 518 for overseas and 191 for both local and overseas, she added.

DOLE-11 has solicited a total of 24,311 job openings that were posted during the ‘Kalayaan’ Job Fair held simultaneously at Abreeza Mall and NCCC Mall in Davao City on June 12.

A big chunk of the vacancies came from abroad that offered over 19,000 positions, while the local has opened 5,136 jobs. There were 79 companies that joined the event with 52 local firms and 27 overseas.

Flordelis said the top 10 most desired jobs for local employment are call center agents, information technology (IT) specialists, civil, mechanical, industrial engineers, factory/production workers, sales personnel, waiters/waitresses, accountants, human resources personnel, English teachers and medical technologists.

For overseas employment, the top 10 in demand jobs are household service workers/domestic helpers, waitresses/waiters, engineers, cook, drivers/operators, welders, nurses, laborers, service crews, and cashiers.

She said most of the overseas jobs were offered by countries in the Middle East and Canada.

DOLE-11 has also put up a one-stop shop of document and application processing services and information dissemination programs from agencies under DOLE such as Overseas Workers Welfare Authority (OWWA), Philippine Overseas Employment Authority (POEA), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) and National Conciliation and Mediation Board (NCMB).

Other agencies such as the Social Security System (SSS), Pag-Ibig, National Statistics Office, and PhilHealth also offered their application processing services in the one-stop shop. (PIA-11/Carina L. Cayon)