Jobless? Apply with gov’t, advises Recto

Sen. Ralph Recto. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

JOBLESS college graduates should consider a career in government, with more than 200,000 permanent job positions expected to be unfilled this year.

Sen. Ralph Recto said the government should fill these vacancies to bring down the number of jobless Filipinos, especially among the youth.

According to Recto, only 1.295 million out of 1.514 million permanent job positions will be occupied this year, which means a vacancy of more than 218,000.

These positions can be filled by the approximately 536,072 unemployed college graduates in the country, the largest sector in the unemployed pool, he said.

“There’s a huge talent pool which can be tapped,” he added in a statement.

The Department of Health and the Department of Education are the agencies expected to recruit a big number of personnel in 2016, said Recto.

The DOH will need 21,118 new employees, including 946 doctors, 15,727 nurses, 3,100 midwives, 308 medical technologists and 324 dentists.

The DepEd will have 62,320 new teaching positions.

“While not all of these slots must be filled urgently—in fact there may be no need to fill some of them for reasons of efficiency and economy—they still show career opportunities in public service for those with the qualifications and the drive to take them,” said Recto.

He said, however, some of the positions may have been considered redundant. Leila B. Salaverria