BAGUIO CITY – Some four hundred eighty six applicants were hired on the spot by the different local and overseas employment companies during the Labor Day jobs fair held at the Baguio Convention Center last Sunday.
Jose L. Atanacio, Executive Assistant IV of the City Mayor’s Office and concurrent Public Employment Service Office (PESO) Manager, said of the total number of applicants that were hired on the spot, 47 applicants were hired by the different participating local companies while 29 applicants were hired by the overseas employment agencies that joined the whole day jobs fair.
He revealed those who were hired on the spot represents 24 percent of the total number of 2,077 applicants who were qualified during the said jobs fair. Of the total number of qualified applicants, 1,512 applicants were qualified by local companies while 565 applicants were also qualified for overseas employment.
On the other hand, Atanacio cited there were a total of 1,703 applicants who were nearly hired wherein 1,214 applicants were nearly hired by local companies and 389 applicants by overseas employment agencies.
The PESO manager explained the nearly hired workers were those who have some lacking documents and were requested by their prospective employers to complete the same for a prescribed period of time before being hired for their applied positions.
There were some 293 applicants referred by the prospective employers to the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) for skills training prior to their being hired for the positions that they have applied or independent requests from the applicants themselves for national certification trainings.
At the same time, some 95 applicants were also referred to the concerned government agencies for livelihood assistance upon the requests of various groups in relation to the implementation of the bottoms up budgeting which is one of the major programs of the government.
It was learned that there were a total of 4,606 job applicants who participated in the said jobs fair with around 2,703 applicants for local employment and 1,903 applicants for overseas employment.
The annual Labor Day jobs fair is an institutionalized program of the city government in coordination with the Department of labor and Employment in order to provide opportunities for job seekers to land in good paying jobs that fit their qualifications.
The city government is funding the conduct of the labor Day jobs fair and the Charter Day jobs fair being conducted every May 1 and September 1, respectively, purposely to provide opportunities for local and overseas companies to get the services of qualified local applicants not only from the city’s 128 barangays but also from the Baguio-La Trinidad-Itogon-Sablan-Tuba-Tublay (BLISTT) communities.
By Dexter A. See
