PASIG CITY -- OFFICIALS of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) brushed aside forecasts by some recruiters that this year's deployment of contract workers will drop as a result of new Japanese immigration rules possibly reducing the number of Filipino workers bound for that country.

POEA deputy administrator Carmelita Dimzon was upbeat about the government's overseas job prospects for 2005, even if labor recruiters specializing in the placement of Overseas Performing Artists (OPAs) in Japan predict at least a 90-percent drop in OPA deployment to Japan as a result of new rules that went into effect March 15. There are an estimated 80,000 OPAs currently working in Japan.

At a CEO forum on overseas labor markets on March 17, Dimzon said that government remained optimistic about reaching the one-million mark in overseas deployment this year, as POEA deployed 933,588 overseas Filipino workers last year – the highest recorded in the country's three-decades-old overseas employment program.

"We refute that observation," said deputy administrator Carmelita Dimzon to a reporter during the forum, in reference to recruiters' gloomy 2005 deployment forecast as reported in the tabloid OFW Ngayon last January.

At the forum, assistant Labor secretary Danilo Cruz said the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) plans to offset what they estimate will be a loss of 55,000 OFW jobs in Japan by generating an additional 65,000 overseas jobs by "aiming for new and additional opportunities" or labor markets.

These markets include: 1) Israel for caregivers, tourism, and construction workers; 2) Macau for hotel and casino workers; 3) Singapore and China for teachers; 4) Australia, Norway, Trinidad and Tobago, and South Africa for health care workers; 5) the Cayman Islands for restaurant workers and the Bahamas for medical and skilled workers; 6) the United Kingdom for social workers and physical and occupational therapists; 7) Kazakhstan for technical and professional workers in the oil, energy, and construction sectors; and, 8) Iran for skilled workers.

Labor attaches in Italy, Greece, Saipan and the Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands, and Canada, also believe there are still relatively untapped labor markets in their respective areas.

They said Italy remains open to domestic workers and restaurant staff, Greece to seafarers, Saipan to workers for its tourism industry, and Canada to caregivers and health workers.

1M overseas jobs still the target
Dimzon said government's target remains one million overseas jobs, and Secretary Sto. Tomas "is pushing us to make it happen". "This is where we rely on our friends from the private sector to help us in this objective," Dimzon told recruiters at the forum organized by the online recruiting company JobsDB.com.

According to a DOLE March 18 press release, the department was responsible for the placement of about 1.7 million Filipinos in local and overseas jobs in 2004. POEA placed 933,588 Filipinos in overseas jobs, while DOLE's public employment service offices placed some 804,367 Filipinos in local jobs.

"If the one-million (overseas jobs) target is not achieved, "we will be sad," Dimzon said. "It is a target, and we will do our best (to reach it)."

"To ensure that these goals are met, the DOLE and POEA, in coordination with the legitimate private recruitment industry of the country, shall be conducting year-round, high-level marketing missions to tap and strengthen OFW markets," Sto. Tomas was quoted as saying in a February 17 press statement.

The 1-million jobs from the labor export industry has been government's target since 2001, when President Arroyo assumed office. Since then, deployment trends have been up and down: 866,599 in 2001, 891,908 in 2002 (a 2.9-percent increase), 867.969 in 2003 (a 2.7-percent decrease), and 933,588 in 2004 or a 7.5 percent increase.

The 2003 to 2004 year-on-year increase on OFW deployment is the highest since the government deployed 831,643 OFWs in 1998 (from 747,696 in 1997, for an 11.2 percent increase). It was the year the government first breached the 800,000 level in deployment. end