Atty. Jalilo O.

Dela Torre, OIC, Bureau of Local Employment

In a labor-surplus economy, we’re now experiencing an
unbelievable phenomenon of jobs looking for workers.

1. Out of 100 workers applying for call center jobs, only 5 are hired:
they need 600,000 more until 2010, according to BPAP
2. 100,000 welders needed locally.
3. Commercial airline pilots and aviation technicians have flown away
and are now considered critical skills.
4. Mining, geodetic and metallurgical engineers now needed by the
mining industry but none can be extracted from the earth.
5. Did you know we don’t have enough waiters and bartenders? And
you thought waitering was easy!
 Key Employment Generators Demand/Supply Situation

Key Employment Jobs Creation In Demand Skills Hard to Fill Occupation

Generator (2006-2010) Capacity (2006-
2010)

I. Cyberservices 1,383,892 Entry-level Animators, HR Engineers, Accountants, Animators,

Analysts, Financial
Accountants, Call Center
Agents, Engineers, Editors,
Programmers,
II. Mining 39,382 Skilled Engineers, Miner,
Surveyor, Geodetic
Engineer, Metallurgist
III. Aviation 27,581 Pilot, Mechanic, Air Traffic
Controller
IV. Agribusiness 2,043,755 Inland and Coastal
Fishermen, Oyster/Mussel
Farm Cultivator, Vegetable
Farmer, Fruit Tree Farmer
Programmers, Contact Center Agents,
Medical Transcriptionists, Editors
Geologists, Mining Engineers,
Metallurgical Engineers, Geodetic
Engineer
Pilot, Mechanic
Entrepreneurs, Aquaculturist,
Horticulturist
 Key Employment
Generator (2006-2010) Capacity (2006-
V. Health and Social Work
(Health Services/Medical
Tourism)
VI. Hotel and Restaurant
VII. Overseas Employment
VIII. Shipbuilding &
Maritime
IX. Construction
Jobs Creation In Demand Skills
2010)
382,495 Trained Nurse, Dentist, Nursing
Aide, Health Aide, Massage
Therapist
400,280 Front Office Agent/Attendant,
Cook, Food Server and Handler,
Food and Beverages Attendant,
Other Housekeeping Services,
Waiter, Bartender
5.6 m Seabased, Production,
Professional and Technical,
Administrative and Managerial,
Clerical, Sales, Service,
Agricultural
Hard to Fill Occupation
Trained Nurse, Surgeon, Spa
Therapists, Herbologist,
Cosmetic and Reconstructive
Surgeon
Chefs, Front Office
Agent/Attendant, Cook, Food
Server and Handler, Food and
Beverages Attendant, Other
Housekeeping Services, Waiter,
Bartender
Aluminum Fabricator
Auto Mechanic, Pipe Welder
Pipe Fitter, Carpenter, Marine
Deck Officer, Marine Engineer
Officer
Marine Officer, Seafarer,
Culinary Chef, All occupations
under shipbuilding, Welder,
Fabricators, Pipe Fitter, Marine
Electrician
Architect, Engineer,Welder,
HEO, Insulator, Rigger,
Fabricator, Pipe Fitter
Why do we still have underutilized labor?
We believe the culprit is skills mismatch.

Skills mismatch – refers to a condition whereby the skills

and education of the existing workforce do not match the
needs of existing firms and industries. This largely reflects
the fact that a country’s policies, primarily labor and
education, have not adjusted to the needs of its economic
sectors.
This phenomenon is not just happening in the Philippines.
Reasons for unemployability of college graduates

•the lack of English language competencies,

•poor interactive skills,
•poor choice of degree courses,
•poor quality degree courses or
•more blatantly, just too many students who barely
passed their degree examinations.

Reaction by a reader in a blog to a plan of the Malaysian government to

enroll college undergraduates in skills training to improve their
employability.
A substantial portion of the registered 66,000 unemployed graduates are
from some of the most popular courses.

Business administration, computer and information technology, and

engineering are the most sought-after courses by many school leavers.

This has resulted in a high number of unemployment among graduates

from these disciplines – 19,900 business administration graduates, 9,500
from computer and information technology, and 7,500 engineering
graduates.

The Malay Mail, April 11, 2005

Running third is engineering, with 45,444 expected graduates for
the year. Compared with the figures in 1995, when its graduates
stood at 46,090, the number dropped by 1.4 percent.
Engineering graduates will have the toughest time in getting the
jobs that they spent time learning in the colleges they came from.
“We produce mostly white-collar engineers. They never get their
hands on. Worse, they are not qualified to be engineers in its strict
sense,”

Donald Dee, President, Employers Confederation of the

Philippines
The bottomline is, students should pick courses based
on their capabilities and not based on what's apparently
"in-demand" out there (e.g., IT courses). If you are not
cut out for IT or Engineering, putting yourselves
through the courses is not going to make you more
employable in the IT or Engineering markets.
“Jobs skills mismatch is a major challenge right now. A large
number of trained graduates are left unemployed or
underemployed because they do not fit the requirements of the
job market. It’s quite ironic that a number of job vacancies
could not be filled up because the available manpower supply
would not fit the job.”

Secretary of Education Jeslie Lapus

Percentage of Graduates Employed in Jobs Requiring Preparation in Field
Field of Study 1995 Graduates (%) 1991 Graduates (%)
Agriculture 25.8 35.7
Architecture 42.4 79.6
Commerce & Business 63.9 86.8
Computer Science 38.5 75.5
Dentistry 65.7 89.2
Economics 17.3 31.0
Engineering 59.9 66.3
Fisheries 21.1 66.7
Humanities 19.7 54.6
Language 18.6 60.9
Law 39.4 62.3
Marine Engineering 42.9 56.8
Mass Communications 26.3 58.3
Mathematics 22.9 58.6
Medical Technology 37.8 63.4
Medicine 57.5 87.4
Nautical Science 48.4 38.5
Nursing 41.0 84.5
Physical Science 20.3 63.9
Social Science 29.3 43.0
Teacher Education 41.9 77.4
Veterinary Medicine 43.5
National Career Assessment Examination (NCAE)-
administered by DepEd to determine the areas of
improvement in the basic educational system that could
address the job mismatch in the country.
1,305,211 – took the test on Jan 17, 2007
49,066 or 3.76% showed high aptitude for
college admission
(75% and above in General Scholastic Aptitude)
757,356 or 58.03% demonstrated high levels
of entrepreneurial skills
711,526 or 54.51% demonstrated high levels
of vocational skills
Why college education is still preferred by most

1. College education qualifies them for white-collar

employment which usually offers a number of
advantages—more comfortable and safer
workplaces, more regular and stable terms of
employment, and social security protection.
2. College education improves their lifestyle, if not
their social standing.

CHED 1995 TASK FORCE

Graduates by Discipline Group and Region (Private)
A Y 2 0 0 2 -2 0 0 3

Discipline Group Grand Total % 2

Agricultural, Forestry, Fisheries, Vet Med.

1,001 0.39
Architectural and Town Planning 1,623 0.63
Business Admin. and Related 86,340 33.67
Education and Teacher Training 38,991 15.20
Engineering and Technology 23,926 9.33
Fine and Applied Arts 956 0.37
General 2,303 0.90
Home Economics 66 0.03
Humanities 3,471 1.35
Law and Jurisprudence 2,266 0.88
Mass Comm and Documentation 3,272 1.28
Math and Computer Science 26,450 10.31
Medical and Allied 28,130 10.97
Natural Science 2,316 0.90
Religion and Theology 1,242 0.48
Service Trades 2,211 0.86
Social and Behavioral Science 9,886 3.85
Other Disciplines 22,012 8.58
Grand Total 256,462
100.00
2
%

IT Related Discipline1 25,926 10.11

Maritime Education2 11,614 4.53
Reasons why public secondary schools don’t benefit from
career guidance and counseling:
1. Guidance counselors have little time for guidance and
counseling;
2. High ratio of students to each guidance counselor
3. Lack of training of guidance counselor in career guidance
and counseling and in testing and measurement;
4. Lack of career and labor market information;
5. Inadequate budget for career guidance
6. Lack of qualified staff to use tests for career guidance
and counseling
What do we do about it?
Recommended Strategies and Interventions
 Labor Market Information

1. For career guidance and advocacy

2. For human resource development planning
3. For jobs skills matching
4. For curriculum development
5. For investments promotion
 Elements of Local Employment Planning

1. Local economic and labor market analysis

2. Identification of growth economic sectors
3. Developing a human resources development plan for the
identified growth sectors
4. Initiating a multi-stakeholder dialogue to formulate the local
employment plan and invest ownership
5. Developing employability of constituents through skills
mapping
6. Developing entrepreneurship capabilities of constituents
7. Building capacity of local institutions for employment
facilitation, jobs creation and livelihood promotion
 Career Information, Guidance and Advocacy

1. Focused on public high schools with no career guidance

and counseling services
2. Aimed at paradigm shift in career choice decision
making
3. Interdisciplinary in approach
4. Multi-year scalar implementation
5. Driven by NMS and NHRC recommendations
Strategic Framework for Youth Employment
Manpower Summits
What we can do together
 Active Labor Market Policies

Framework of Engagement in Local Employment

Urgent Tasks for Collaboration among DOLE,PESOPHIL
and private industry:
1. Career Advocacy Program – Career Information,
Guidance and Counseling Training Interventions
2. Broadening Access to Labor Market Information to the
Youth;
3. Addressing Human Resource Challenges of Priority
Growth Economic Sectors, especially BPO
4. Addressing Skills Mismatch through Industry-Academe-
Government Collaboration for Curricular Reform
5. Extending Corporate Social Responsibility of BPO into
the Addressing Vulnerabilities of Disadvantaged Sectors