More than 69,000 job openings were unveiled yesterday by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) at its various economic zones nationwide.
PEZA unveiled the job opportunities via an online launch of its Development Outreach for Labor, Livelihood, and Advancement of Resources (DOLLAR), a job expo and online skills training program. As of yesterday, there were a total of 69,081 job openings at its factories and IT zones across the country.
According to the report, there are 23,644 job openings from locator enterprises located in public and private ecozones in Cluster I, which includes CALABARZON, Pampanga, and National Capital Region.
Meanwhile, Cluster II has 14,126 openings according to the 294 Visayas and Mindanao locator respondents of its online survey. There are also 2,500 job vacancies reported in Baguio and other locators in the north under Cluster III.
Moreover, investment projects that were approved during the May 21 and July 10 PEZA Board meetings are also expected to create a total of 28,811 jobs that will be located in various areas in the Philippines.
“These job vacancies are for Filipinos of any working age and there will be no educational attainment discrimination in the hiring of workers in the ecozones,” said PEZA Director-General Charito B. Plaza.
Interested job applicants may check the vacancies through an online portal powered by Workbank Philippines Inc., which will be found in PEZA’s official website (https://www.workbank.com/dc/peza-online-job-fair).
The launch will be followed by DOLLAR Job Expo in the three public economic zones and in Davao: August 6 in Cavite Economic Zone (CEZ); August 17 in Mactan Economic Zone (MEZ); August 19 in Damosa IT Park in Davao City, and August 25 in Baguio City Economic Zone (BCEZ).
“We are inviting the repatriated overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) as well as the locally laid-off workers rendered jobless by the pandemic to participate in the DOLLAR Job Expo and Online Skills Training programs as it is PEZA’s initiatives to help them during these trying times,” said Plaza.
Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon M. Lopez expressed confidence that the Philippines would bounce back even stronger than the 7 percent GDP growth it enjoyed in the past years.
“I am confident we go back to that growth rate maybe in 2021 and 2022. Definitely we bounce back and higher than 7 percent,” said Lopez. He reiterated that the Philippines is one of two countries in ASEAN that registered growth in exports last year. It also grew in the January-February period this year. Had it not for the pandemic, Lopez expects growth to continue for the rest of the year.
“Once this problem (pandemic) is solved, we will bounce back. There is nowhere to go but up so support manufacturing,” he said.
He said the government is pushing for the patronage of locally produced products to help the growth of the micro, small and medium enterprises. He stressed this is also in support of the Balik Probinsya program of the government to bring more opportunities to the countryside.
Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, the original proponent of EO No. 114 or the Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa program delivered a video message during the launch.