70K jobs up for grabs in nationwide job fair

CLOSE to 70,000 employment opportunities will be up for grabs as the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) holds a nationwide job fair tomorrow, September 13.

In a press conference, Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma announced the conduct of the simultaneous job fairs in 60 venues as part of the “Handog ng Pangulo: Serbisyong Sapat para sa Lahat.”

“We have lined up a number of job fairs, one is the nationwide job fair. It is a nationwide activity that the Department is participating in,” said Laguesma.

DOLE Undersecretary Carmela Torres said nearly 70,000 jobs are set to be offered in the nationwide job fair.

“We have 950 employers and the number of solicited local job vacancies in total is 67,022,” said Torres.

She said most of the job vacancies are in the National Capital Region, Calabarzon, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, and Northern Mindanao.

Torres also said employment opportunities are mostly for production workers, machine operators, customer service, cashiers, sales clerks, painters, carpenters, service crew, call centers, retail sales, construction, and financial and insurance activities.

During the job fairs, DOLE Undersecretary Benjo Benavidez said there would also be payouts to 250,000 emergency employment program beneficiaries amounting to P1 billion.

He said a total of P183 million worth of livelihood assistance shall be handed to over 9,000 beneficiaries during the nationwide event.

“The payouts will happen in 76 provinces across different regions,” said Benavidez.

Aside from the nationwide job fair tomorrow, Laguesma said a special job fair for former POGO workers has been scheduled for the first week of October.

Laguesma said the job fair will come on the heels of the expected conclusion of the ongoing profiling activities of the labor department of POGO workers.

So far, he said 54 POGOs/IGLs have been profiled involving 26,996 workers at risk of losing employment.

“We still have six companies that have not submitted their list (of workers) so we visited them to explain why we need the list in order to provide the appropriate interventions,” said Laguesma.

The DPLE also expressed optimism that more Filipinos are set to gain employment