Over 45,000 Filipino job seekers were hired in more than 1,000 job fairs in 2015

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MANILA – Over 45,000 Filipino job seekers were hired in more than 1,000 job fairs organized by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) all over the country this year.

Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz revealedthat 45,620 have been hired-on-the-spot (HOTS) in the 1,008 job fairs held from January to November, based on the report of the Bureau of Local Employment (BLE).

“DOLE’s job fairs are designed to speed up the meeting of employers, who are looking for qualified workers and workers searching for jobs, hence making their search much easier and convenient,” she said.

Regions with the highest number of HOTS are in the Calabarzon with 17,327; Central Luzon with 12,940; Northern Mindanao, 3,049; Zamboanga Peninsula, 2,293; and Davao Region, 2,208.

HOTS in the remaining regions are the Cordillera Administrative Region with 1,750; Soccsksargen with 1,624; Eastern Visayas, 1,073; Caraga, 895; Central Visayas, 456; Metro Manila, 413; Cagayan Valley, 389; Bicol Region, 366; Ilocos Region, 334; Western Visayas, 328; and Mimaropa, 174.

Records also showed that 172,213 job fair participants were deemed qualified for jobs offered and went through the usual hiring process of participating companies.

Likewise, the BLE reported a total of 243,220 registered job fair participants nationwide.

On the other hand, a total of 1,817,059 jobs were offered by 12,435 employers that participated in the job fairs.

“I am certain that DOLE’s enhanced employment facilitation strategy, one of which is job fairs, will enable us to address the pressing job-skills mismatch problem,” Baldoz said.

Aside from jobs, the job fairs also help job seekers acquire pre-employment documents required by companies such as those needed from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Social Security System, National Statistics Office, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Pag-IBIG, and PhilHealth.