2015: At DOLE job fairs, 45,000 applicants were hired on the spot

MANILA, Philippines – Job fairs organized by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) across the Philippines from January to November 2015 resulted in the on-the-spot hiring of 45,620 applicants.

In a press release on Monday, December 21, the DOLE said these job fairs – more than 1,000 in all – were “designed to speed up the meeting of employers who are looking for qualified workers and workers searching for job, hence making their search much easier and convenient.”

Citing information from the Bureau of Local Employment, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said the more than 12,400 employers and recruitment agencies that participated in these job fairs made available over 1.8 million job vacancies.

Of the 243,220 registered applicants, 172,213 were qualified for positions and set to undergo the hiring processes of the companies, the department said.

“This shows that the country has more jobs available than the registered jobseekers, and at the same time, there is a huge number of jobseekers who need to be placed in jobs that will fit their skills and competencies,” said Baldoz.

She added that she hoped the department’s strategy, which includes job fairs, would help address the country’s job-skills mismatch problem.

The region of Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal) recorded the most number of applicants hired on the spot with over 17,327. The rest of the regions tallied the following hired applicants:

1. Central Luzon – 12,940
2. Northern Mindanao – 3,049
3. Zamboanga Peninsula – 2,293
4. Davao Region- 2,208
5. Cordillera Administrative Region – 1,750
6. Soccsksargen – 1,624
7. Eastern Visayas – 1,073
8. Caraga – 895
9. Central Visayas – 456
10. National Capital Region – 413
11. Cagayan Valley – 389
12. Bicol – 366
13. Ilocos Region – 334
14. Western Visayas – 328
15. Mimaropa – 174

– Rappler.com