1,055 jobseekers hired in DOLE-led Kalayaan job fair in CAR

By Carlito C. Dar

Wednesday 13th of June 2012

BAGUIO CITY, June 13 (PIA) -- More than a thousand job seekers were hired at yesterday's Independence Day job fair at the University of Baguio gymnasium, spearheaded by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).

DOLE-CAR Regional Director John Henry Jalbuena, in an interview, reported that around 2,400 registrants braved the rains here yesterday to participate in this year’s job fair with 1,055 hired on the spot (HOTS).

Of those HOTS, 935 were hired for local employment and 120 for overseas employment.

Twenty-five local companies and 11 overseas employers and employment agencies joined the said job fair.

During the same event, Jalbuena, along with Mayor Mauricio Domogan, led the awarding of P1.71 million under the DOLE Integrated Livelihood Program for Community Enterprise Development (DILP-CED) program to four local community groups in the city.

The beneficiaries are the Knitting, recycling and waste recycling product enterprise of Barangay Gibraltar, the Food Processing and Crochet Product enterprise of Barangay Mines View, steel fabrication/welding shop of Barangay Honeymoon, and the Taxi Service Center of WIN-AP, a community group enterprise.

The DILP-CED, which already benefitted numerous community enterprise here in Cordillera, is one of the flagship programs of the government through the DOLE that aims to make the enterprise, of qualified community groups, viable and sustainable by providing financial grants that will be used to purchase equipment, materials, tools, and jigs for the identified projects.

Jalbuena stressed that providing employment and livelihood opportunities are among the current priority thrusts of the DOLE in line with President Benigno Aquino’s 22-point labor and employment and poverty alleviation agenda to spur economic development in the countryside.

“As the government pushes for more employment opportunities for the country’s unemployed workforce and graduates, side by side livelihood opportunities and local community enterprises development are also being pushed through under the directive of the President, which aims to address poverty alleviation and community development especially in the countryside,” Jalbuena stressed. (JDP/CCD-PIA CAR)