Scramble for Overseas Work Leads to Job Mismatches

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TOP SEARCHES in an online job database reveal Filipino job hunters’ strong bias for overseas work, which creates a mismatch, as vacancies are found mostly in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector.

Most job hunters seek employment as seafarers, hospital and restaurant management staff, oil rig engineers, and health care personnel like nurses and caregivers, said Yoda R. Buyco, marketing director of Jobstreet.com Philippines, Inc., citing July data from Google Analytics.

“There is a mismatch. They all want to go abroad…[but] the supply is in business process outsourcing,” she told BusinessWorld, adding that the Filipino culture still glorifies working abroad and earning dollars.

Jobs as call center agents and technical support staff are only the fifth most-searched in the site.

BPO jobs are followed by manufacturing tasks like assembly line and factory work, as Filipinos want to go to Taiwan, Ms. Buyco said.

Seventh on the list is human resource administration, followed by engineering, finance-related jobs like accounting, and aviation work.

Ms. Buyco said the top job searches remain unchanged from last year.

She shared that 13% or 24 of the 188 local firms that will participate in the “Jobgantic Career Fair 2011”– to be held on Aug. 12 and 13 at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay — are in the BPO sector.

Call center revenues are expected to double by 2016 to $14.7 billion from this year’s forecast, given growing demand that requires additional hiring, the Contact Center Association of the Philippines said early this week.

The industry’s work force is also expected to double to 816,000 in the next five years from 406,000 by the end of this year and 344,000 last year.

The number of contact centers in the country as of end-2010 stood at 239, data from the Business Process Outsourcing Association of the Philippines show.

Ms. Buyco said the perception that call center work is a fallback plan should be changed.

“These companies serve top multinational firms,” she said.

The job fair will feature 250 companies offering 158,600 jobs. Of these, 102,000 are posted by local firms.

A total of 62 foreign companies are looking for 56,600 workers to fill up 9,436 job descriptions.

Jobstreet.com said nine of these foreign companies are into general work, and are looking for housekeepers, drivers and messengers.

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