The business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in the Philippines will expand with more job openings expected in the coming months amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) announced the projection in its release on June 14, 2020, following its weekend meeting with BPO sectors.
DOLE sees the resurgence of BPOs and reported that big companies have already posting thousands of additional seats to fill up their manpower requirements.
Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III also said the COVID 19 pandemic and the subsequent global recession will force the West to offshore more jobs in the industry, a good size of which will go to the Philippines, particularly Clark, Cebu, and Metro Manila.
The optimistic outlook followed a meeting with IT-BPO industry leaders where officials noted that the industry continues to provide employment opportunities amid the pandemic.
“We received information that some big companies have already given notice for their requirements, one of which needing at least 4,000 seats to be filled up before September,” Bello said.
The labor chief’s optimism was confirmed by Rey Untal, president and chief executive officer of the IT Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), who said companies continue to hire to fill the demand of the industry.
IBPAP, which counts the biggest players in the country among its more than 300 members, is the enabling association for the industry in the Philippines which employs over 1.3 million employees.
“The industry indeed continues to hire (despite the pandemic),” Untal told labor officials in a meeting over the weekend.
The meeting was prompted by a recent online survey of a BPO employees’ group which reported that four out of 10 BPO workers are either in floating or ‘no-work-no-pay’ status during the lockdown.
Untal said his group is taking the initiative to intervene and discuss the issues raised by the workers with the country heads of concerned BPO companies.
DOLE, which has issued several guidelines for employers to protect jobs and prevent layoffs and retrenchments, is also appealing to the employees, who are still on a leave of absence, to return to work to help the industry continuously provide services in these difficult times.
Ahead of the lockdown, a Social Weather Station survey indicated that joblessness among Filipinos had gone down by 4%. BPO and other technology companies were recently reported to be among the top Philippine employers.
SEND CHEERS in the comments below to the BPO industry for the optimistic outlook amid the COVID 19 pandemic.
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