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Jobs recovery seen as market reopens

By Kris Crismundo

January 26, 2022, 8:19 pm

<p><em>File photo</em></p>

File photo

MANILA –  Online recruitment platform JobStreet has observed a 27-percent increase in job postings in 2021, signaling recovery since the pandemic struck.
 
JobStreet Country Manager Philip Gioca said Wednesday there were 75,000 job postings per day from January to September last year from 59,000 daily job postings in 2020.
 
Gioca said job listings in the online platform are now at 75 percent of the pre-pandemic level.
 
“You would see (that) with that increase is a signal that jobs are increasing, (the) market is reopening,” he added.
 
In 2021, top specializations hired by companies were in customer service with 101,627 jobs followed by education with 83,414 jobs, information technology/computer-software at 53,766, finance- general/cost accounting at 43,797, and clerical administrative support at 42,490.
 
Completing the top 10 job vacancies that were filled last year were in healthcare–nurse/medical support and assistant, marketing/business development, human resources, sales-retail/general, and banking/financial services.
 
In terms of growth, employers in IT/computer software almost doubled the number of hiring in 2021 compared to 2020 figures.
 
Gioca said JobStreet logged over 105 million job searches last year.
 
“It only proves to you that the activity of job-seeking was tremendous in 2021. So you would see that many people, because of the disruptions, were really looking for jobs in 2021,” he added.
 
He said there was an increase of job searches for blue-collar jobs such as housekeeper, driver, dispatch, and messenger among others, accounting for the highest jump in job searches on JobStreet at 55 percent.
 
This is followed by jobs in food, beverage, and restaurant service with 54 percent increase; hotel management and tourism services, up by 46 percent; retail and general sales, up by 42 percent; architecture and interior design, up by 42 percent; personal care, beauty, and fitness services, up by 39 percent; healthcare–pharmacy, up by 37 percent; clerical/administrative support, up by 36 percent; mechanical and automotive engineering, up by 36 percent; and civil, construction, and structural engineering, up by 36 percent.
 
“Most of them were actually displaced because of the pandemic and (the) majority of these people would constitute working in an SME-(small and medium enterprise) type of companies. If you notice in 2021, really our SMEs were the most affected and impacted by the pandemic,” Gioca said.
 
Earlier, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, who also chairs the Task Force Group on Economic Recovery-National Employment Recovery Strategy (TGER-NERS), said the government targets to narrow down the unemployment rate close to pre-pandemic levels of 5 to 5.5 percent.
 
In November 2021, the country’s unemployment rate went down to 6.5 percent from a peak of 17.6 percent recorded at the height of the pandemic in April 2020.
 
Lopez added that job shedding and recovery highly depend on restrictions on mobility. (PNA)
 

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