Manila - The deployment of Filipino workers abroad rose by
20 per cent in the first month of the year despite the global
economic crisis, a Philippine labour official said Tuesday.
Jennifer Manalili, administrator of the Philippine Overseas
Administration, said the number of Filipino workers who went abroad
for work in January reached 165,000 from 132,000 in the same month
last year.
Manalili said her office was still determining which sector and
profession posted the highest number of deployment.
'We are still in the process of collecting the data now and we
will have the final report before the end of the month,' she said.
Manalili said the January data somewhat eased the concern of the
Philippine government about the possible decline of demands for
Filipino workers abroad as the economic crisis battered countries
around the globe.
Government data showed that more than 5,000 overseas Filipino
workers have returned to the Philippines since October 2008 after
they were laid off, while more than 45,000 Filipino workers lost
their jobs in the Philippines as multinational companies closed shop
here.
The government is heavily dependent on the remittances of the
country's more than 8 million overseas workers to shore up the
sagging economy.
The central bank said remittances rose 13.7 per cent to 16.42
billion dollars in 2008, from 14.44 billion dollars in 2007. That
accounts for at least 10 per cent of the gross domestic product.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and senior government officials
have been aggressively seeking new employment opportunities for
Filipino workers abroad, including in high-risk countries like
Iraq and Nigeria.
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