ILOILO CITY -- A total of 130 applicants were hired on-the-spot (HOTS) during the Christmas job fair facilitated by the Public Employment Service Office (PESO) in Iloilo province on December 7-8.
In an interview Monday, PESO manager Francisco Heler Jr. said these HOTS applicants were among the 2,346 jobseekers who came during the two-day job fair held at the Capitol.
He said most of them will be working in malls as service crew and cashiers, in drug stores as sales clerk and pharmacy assistant, supermarkets as bagger and cashiers, among others.
The job fair offered more than around 60,000 job vacancies, most of which are for overseas employment with 53,201. A total of 124 companies offered these jobs.
Four government agencies joined the event namely, the Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Professional Regulation Commission (PRC).
“Our job fair was really successful, and we really appreciate the companies who joined as during the event,” Heler said.
However, this year’s figure of 2,346 jobseekers was lower than the 2,957 applicants during the Christmas job fair last year.
“But it is still a good number,” Heler said.
Heler further said there were also some seven persons with disabilities (PWDs), solo parents, graduates of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), and a probationer who grabbed the opportunity for possible employment.
Special lanes were opened to give them priority.
There were also special lanes for beneficiaries of the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) and Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), but they were still consolidating the data if there were those who were accommodated during the job fair.
Meanwhile, around 17 local government units participated in the “Libreng Sakay at Libreng Pamasahe,” which provided jobseekers free transportation from their town going to the provincial capitol and back.
The next job fair here may be conducted first week of June 2019. (PNA)
