MANILA— The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) announced that more than 216,000 job opportunities will be available nationwide during this year’s Labor Day job fairs, with over 34,000 of those being overseas positions.
Speaking at a pre-Labor Day briefing on Monday, Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma said the agency aims to exceed last year’s total of roughly 235,000 job openings.
“We hope to surpass the number of vacancies we had last year. And as Labor Day approaches, the number of job opportunities continues to grow,” Laguesma said in Filipino.
The job fairs will take place across 69 venues nationwide, including 14 sites in the National Capital Region (NCR), where more than 63,000 jobs are up for grabs.
While most job fairs will be held on May 1, some events are scheduled earlier, on April 29 and 30, and later, on May 2. The main job fair venue will be the SMX Convention Center, which will operate from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Many of the job fairs will be hosted in shopping malls, which Laguesma said provides a more comfortable environment for jobseekers.
“We’re fortunate to have partner malls where jobseekers don’t have to worry about the heat or outdoor exposure,” he added.
Meanwhile, recent labor market data shows signs of improvement. The country’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.8 percent in February, down from 4.3 percent in January. Underemployment also declined to 10.1 percent from the previous month’s 13.3 percent, indicating a potential uptick in job quality.
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