Mideast attracting workers
Published: 15 January 2007
SEVEN out of 10 Philippines workers who left their country between January and November last year came to the Middle East, with a large number of them taking jobs in Bahrain.
Saudi Arabia got the lion’s share, at 30 per cent, according to the latest statistics released by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).
The study showed that out of 285,014 actual departures of Philippines workers in the first 11 months of last year through the country’s international airports, 194,034 headed to the Middle East.
Of the total departures, 168,903 were men and 116,111 women.
Mideast attracting workers
Published: 15 January 2007
SEVEN out of 10 Philippines workers who left their country between January and November last year came to the Middle East, with a large number of them taking jobs in Bahrain.
Saudi Arabia got the lion’s share, at 30 per cent, according to the latest statistics released by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).
The study showed that out of 285,014 actual departures of Philippines workers in the first 11 months of last year through the country’s international airports, 194,034 headed to the Middle East.
Of the total departures, 168,903 were men and 116,111 women.
The top 10 countries of destination of overseas Philippines workers in 2006 were Saudi Arabia with 83,778 workers, followed by the UAE with 35,493; Taiwan – 28,735; Qatar – 25,952; Kuwait – 24,537; Hong Kong – 18,684; South Korea – 10,047; Lebanon – 7,719; Japan – 6,798; and Bahrain – 4,876.
The official data does not indicate the number of those who left the country as tourists and ended up as undocumented workers, said sources.
More than 48pc, or 136,341, of the departures with appropriate documentation found employment as service workers. Thirty-four pc or 97,488 were hired for production and related jobs, transport equipment operators and labourers, while 33,819 were professional technical and related workers.
Some 7,315 workers were hired for clerical jobs, 5,070 as sales workers, 3,434 with unclassified major skills, 784 as agricultural/animal husbandry and forestry workers and 763 for administrative and managerial jobs. Six out of 10 of were males.
“For many years, Saudi Arabia has remained to be the top host country to Philippines workers,” said a POEA spokesman.
“In 1999, the kingdom hosted 198,556 Philippines workers, but this went down to 184,724 in 2000.
“The departures increased again to 190,732 in 2001, then to 193,157 in 2002, and down again to 169,011 in 2003.
“In 2004, some 188,107 Philippines left for jobs in the kingdom. The number grew again to 193,991 in 2005, registering a growth of 3.3pc from the previous year.”
© Gulf Daily News