DOLE exceeds Labor Day H.O.T.S. target: Baldoz reports 5,565 instantly hired in 54 Job an1d Career Fairs; 1,94 ‘near-hires’

Labor and Employment Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz yesterday expressed satisfaction over the peaceful 2016 Labor Day celebration, her last as DOLE chief, and to the successful conduct by the DOLE of its 54 Job and Career Fairs which offered over 167,000 job vacancies to job seekers.

“First, I am grateful and thankful to the Lord for the peaceful celebration of the 2016 Labor Day, the 114th such observance in the country. Second, I am pleased that we exceeded our expectations in the conduct of our job and career fairs,” she said in a statement.

Baldoz said preliminary results of the Job and Career Fairs show a total of 5,565 job seekers were declared hired-on-the-spot, or H.O.T.S., while 11,945 were deemed ‘near-hires’, applicants who are considered hired but who needs to submit additional or lacking requirements, or who may need to attend further interviews or tests.

“We exceeded our H.O.T.S. target of 25 percent of qualified applicants by almost one percent. Our H.O.T.S. was 25.7 percent, higher by almost three percent than our 2015 Labor Day H.O.T.S. of 22.8 percent,” she explained.

Baldoz said the top three regions with the highest H.O.T.S. in absolute figures were the DOLE-NCR (1,505); Region XI (1,010), and CAR (495). The top three regions with the highest H.O.T.S. in terms of percentage were Region 9 (43.4 percent), Region XI (43.1 percent) and Region 7 (40.2 percent).

Citing a report of Bureau of Local Employment Director Dominique R. Tutay, Baldoz said 33,435 job applicants registered for the job and career fairs all over the country. Of this number, 20,805 qualified and were referred for interviews.

“Many of the job applicants subjected themselves to not just one, but multiple, interviews, hence, we recorded a total of 38,378 interviews. They heeded our call to apply to as many employers as possible,” Baldoz said.

Not all who registered in the job fairs looked for jobs, though. Some visited the job and career fairs to register with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), an attached agency of the DOLE, for skills training. There were 872 of these job and career fairs visitors. Still, many others came to know more about the DOLE’s livelihood opportunities, as evidenced by the 961 who were referred to for livelihood assistance.

The top vacant positions filled-up during the job and career fairs, in no particular order, are the following: Management Trainee; Sales Officer; Loans and Investment Officer; HR Officer; CSR Officer; Waiter; Accounting Staff/Assistant; Front Desk Officer; Administrative; Officer/Assistant; IT Officer/Staff; Clerk; Cashier; Quality Assurance Officer; Programmer; Instructor/Teacher; Supervisor; Medical Representative; Mechanical Engineer; Cadet Engineer; and Graphic Artist.

For abroad, the most common positions that were filled-up were those for Sales Assistant; Salesman; Sales Clerk; Nurse; Pipefitter; Ducker; Electrician; Pipe Fitter; Clerk; Machine Operator; and Waiter, with most of them hired for the United Arab Emirates; Qatar; Kuwait; and Bahrain.

Meanwhile, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration deputy chief Amuerfina Reyes reported to the Secretary that 62 OFW returnees registered with the Assist WELL Mobile Processing Center in the DOLE-NCR Job and Career Fair at the World Trade Center, 15 of them female, while 47 were male.

According to Reyes, 31 of the OFWs sought referral assistance for overseas jobs, and the Center promptly issued 76 referrals; six OFWs requested legal assistance; one sought assistance for competency assessment; one applied for the Balik-Pinas Balik Hanapbuhay of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration; and eight applied for entrepreneurial development training.

“We have also recorded 367 H.O.T.S. out 2,500 qualified applicants; 708 near-hires; and 429 applicants for further interview,” reported Deputy Administrator Reyes.

Baldoz said all the data reported by the BLE are preliminary because as of press time, there is still an on-going job fair in Region XI, while results of some job fairs are still being collated, such as that of the night time job and career fair in Lingayen, the first in the region and for the DOLE, which was conducted the other night.

To job seekers who were not hired-on-the-spot during the Labor Day Job and Career Fairs, Baldoz urged them not to be discouraged because the DOLE has more job fairs to come. “Besides, we are monitoring the status of the application with the various employers for one month after the event. We also require reports from the employers, and hopefully, job seekers who were not hired-on-the-spot will have the chance to get selected and hired,” she said.