DOLE calls new grads to job fairs

MANILA, Philippines—New graduates looking for a job should come to the job fairs to be conducted by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) this summer, Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said.

Baldoz said the DOLE was setting up job fairs across the country beginning April just as fresh college graduates start looking for work.

“By visiting the DOLE’s job fairs, graduates and other jobseekers will spend less money and minimal effort in looking for a job since we gather both local and overseas employers all in one venue,” she said.

The Commission on Higher Education (CHED), which oversees tertiary institutions, estimated 533,000 college graduates for the school year now ending.

“The conduct of monthly job fairs has been DOLE’s employment facilitation strategy to bring jobs closer to jobseekers, especially in the regions. We are making their search easier by bringing the jobs through the fairs to the countryside,” she said.

Baldoz said the agency conducted 150 job fairs nationwide in the first two months of the year in which 264,292 applicants registered for 500,000 vacancies offered up by 2,324 local and overseas employers.

Of the applicants, 175,130 were placed by the DOLE through its 16 regional offices and the Public Employment Service Office (PESO), while 112,916 were hired directly in the private sector. The remaining 62,214 jobseekers were hired by the government, she said.

“Another milestone of the DOLE in its first two months of job search and placement assistance is the 15,040 hired-on-the-spot (HOTS) applicants from the nationwide job fairs,” Baldoz said.

The DOLE’s year-round job fair schedules and venues are posted online at www.phil-job.net.

The job fairs also serve as a one-stop shop where jobseekers may avail themselves of documentation services from the National Statistics Office, National Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Professional Regulation Commission, Philippine Health Insurance Corp. and Pag-Ibig Fund.