1M Pinoys to lose jobs -- DoLE, Neda

11/23/2008

A total of one million Filipinos working in highly vulnerable jobs abroad and in export industries may lose their jobs as the raging global crisis sweeps one country after another.

This was the conclusion of a recent study made by the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) included in the presentation of National Economic Development Authority (Neda) assistant director general in a consultation meeting with different business and government leaders in Manila Wednesday.

The DoLE report saw Philippine export enterprises and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) as being straight on the path of the economic tsunami.

Of over nine million Filipinos working in 194 countries, at risk of being sent home are 129,000 OFWs who work in the United States, mostly school teachers, under temporary working visas.

Also facing the risk of losing their jobs were 130,000 seamen working as crews in cruise ships, another 268,000 factory workers in South Korea, Taiwan and Macau, plus 48,000 domestic helpers in Singapore, Macau and Hongkong.

Newspaper reports had it that Korean police have started rounding up Filipino factory workers with defective papers.

In all, the DoLE estimates that 590,000 OFWs will likely get laid off as the US-bred economic virus crosses continents.

In the export front, the labor and employment office pinpointed four major export sectors running the risk of either closing shop, downsizing their operations, resorting to reduced working hours or freezing hiring and cutting wages.

On top of its list was the garments industry with 120,000 workers. DoLE specifically zeroed in on the fact that 77 percent of Philippine garments find their way to the US market whose consumer spending has been steadily going down since September.

Multinational companies in the Philippines will tend to follow the direction from headquarters in the United States, Europe and other countries implementing jobs reduction to cope with a global financial meltdown, American businessmen warned.

The American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in the Philippines gave this forecast during the recently held multi-sectoral and industry consultation on global financial crisis organized by the Labor department.

“In many countries, we have already seen a lot of job cuts in USA, Europe and other economies. The multinational (firms) in the Philippines will tend to follow direction from headquarters in these locations. When they cut jobs, probably they will be downsizing also in the Philippines,” said Ernie Cecilia, committee chairman of the AmCham’s Industrial Relations.

“There will be tighter capital and credit, there will be slowdown in construction, real estate and other industries...There will probably slower consumer spending on account of these lower (OFWs) remittances,” he noted.

Cecilia described the present global economic situation as “not business as usual” as many other economies also reel from the impact of the crisis.

“We are truly living in an uncertain time today and the economic indicators tend to show that the situation will persist for a longer time,” Cecilia said, “Maybe, we are not feeling it yet... but there is no reason for Filipinos to rejoice because soon enough, we might be experiencing recession and depression.”

To ride out difficult economic times, he called on the Philippines to implement tougher decisions even these may entail changes and adjustments.

Cecilia encouraged the government to continue providing environment conducive to both local and foreign investments, even as he foresees that foreign direct investments (FDIs) will be reduced amid stiff competition posed by China, Vietnam and other more suitable FDIs destinations.

For her part, DoLE’s National Reintegration Center director Teresita Manzala said the department has prepared different interventions for the crisis-affected industries and workers.

Manzala said the government provides training re-tooling and skills improvement for the displaced employees to upgrade them from being unskilled to high-skilled workers.

It will also assist these workers shift from one industry or occupation to another to find new jobs, she added.

“We have four pieces of reintegration: profiling, counseling, training and (setting up a) business which is either wage employment, investments for those who are risk-averse and entrepreneurship and livelihood undertaking,” she added.

Likewise, Manzala said they are undertaking profiling of displaced workers that guides the department determine local industries with a skills gap.

“There might be skills gap in the industries that can be provided by those (OFWs) who will be coming home. That is what we are after,” she said. “We can give this (profiling form) to our labor attaches so that our coordination will be enhanced.

It was followed by the electronics industry, the biggest in the country in terms of dollar revenues with its 111,000 workers. Both industries began posting below zero growth last August and the electronics industry had reported it was received order cancellations for the first time last October.

Also seen to be hit hard and may fire 2,000 workers each are the automotive wiring industry and coconut oil with 39.3 percent and 41.7 percent of their monthly orders coming from the United States.

What the DoLE report had not yet imputed would be the impact of recession in 15 European countries and Japan which had also reported their economies have been shrinking for the past six consecutive months.

Meanwhile massive layoffs are expected in the first quarter next year as the Philippines absorbs the full impact of economic crisis raging across the world. Dr. Rene Ofreneo, director of the UP School of Labor and Industrial Relation (Solair ) told reporters during the weekly Balitaan SA Rembrandt hotelin Quezon City that he expects the full impact of the economic meltdown to hit the Philippines early next year.

Ofreneo, who is also the director of the Fair Trade Alliance said among the most affected in the massive employment are the OFWs in maritime, construction, electronic and export related business, adding that the current economic crisis will be cushioned by Christmas spending but the coming year would be a scenario of returning overseas workers, the slowdown in food consumption and the call center industry.

Ofreneo said the global recession will not spare the Philippines because it is dependent on remittances of the OFW who are returning to the country.

Foreign assisted projects will also suffer set back because donor countries like Japan, and other countries are now reeling with the impact of the meltdown.

Ofreneo said the call center industry, which is projecting a workforce of 400,000 in the next two years would suffer the fate of the garment industry, which was the major labor force in the late 70’s.

The garment industry which used to have a workforce of 1 million is now reduced to 150,00 workers.” he said. With PHILEXPORT News and Features and Tribune wires

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