Many fresh graduates face the realm of unemployment and job hiring, wherein job applicants are in dire need to secure their future. Therefore, the long standing issue of lack of adequate work force has struck the nation.
Labor mismatch exists where certain job applicants apply for a job, which is not the applicants' area of expertise. Moreover, a certain rise of demands for specific jobs (like the BPO industry, mechanical work force, and the like) that makes job mismatch dance into an upsurge. Here are the probable reasons:
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| Labor mismatch exists where certain job applicants apply for a job, which is not the applicants' area of expertise. |
1. High setting standards for the job position
This is one of the major reasons why job mismatch exists. Employers of certain companies creates an job opening for a certain position; whereas, most of them requires the applicants to possess college degree to apply for the position. Moreover, a certain time frame of should be met to be suitable for the job, and job applications had strict screening process. On the contrary, this is reasonable for supervisor/managerial jobs... but not to some jobs positions really require job experience, as long as the applicant is trainable.
Furthermore, most of the applicants' educational attainment nowadays range from high school graduate (not K-12) to college undergraduates (vocational/associate graduates included). However, few of which possess high-end skill sets like computer literacy, high language proficiency, software skills/proficiency, and the like, which these had a hard time to secure a job through job openings offered at job fairs and classified ads (regardless if online or in print media).
Thus, most of these underqualified (in terms of educational attainment, yet skilled) applicants had no choice but to look for a job that is either high paying and in demand jobs that is off-tangent in their skill sets; or look for any job for the sake of everyday survival.
2. Contractualization
The existence of contractualization saves the revenue of many companies in terms of benefits and tax to contractual workers to do the same regular work for less of the salary. Moreover, contractualization renders as a probationary period for employees to become a regular part of the company. Nevertheless, the contract expiration (or ENDO) for five months subjects the employee to renew the contract over and over again, and never had the chance to be regularized despite the hard work and dedication rendered to the company.
On the contrary, contractualization has a positive light for those who wish to expand their working experience, and to work on other companies than the previous ones. Furthermore, this is an advantage to experienced job applicant to apply for a higher and better position than the previous one, which offers high salary to support their needs.
3. Less job openings on rural areas
There are few job openings on provincial areas because of fewer job opportunities in the province than those in the nation's capital. Moreover, provincial rate is different than the NCR rate, which is Php 444 to Php 481/hour, contrary to Php 300+/hour. Therefore, people are forced to migrate to NCR for a good pay rate.
Furthermore, the struggle of migrating and applying for a job can be twice, or thrice, harder than in the province because the aspiring applicant should have a relative living in Manila, and have enough pocket money to go to and fro on places around Makati, Ortigas, Quezon City, and other relative areas where hiring agents are anywhere, and job fairs are open.
4. High demand only on specific work sector
Most of the in-demand jobs are call center agents (colloquially known as customer service representative) by major business process outsource (BPO) companies like Alorica, TransCom, and others. Few of which requires a specific educational attainment to apply for positions in BPO companies. Other in-demand job sectors include Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Management, and Multimedia.
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| These are the list of in-demand sectors in the labor field. Image courtesy of JobStreet.com |
Thus, no wonder why the pop question to kids and teens of "what you want to be when you grow up" always points on becoming a famous celebrity like being a singer, or being an actor/actress, has been a part of the Filipino culture.
5. Many workers go abroad
Because of the growing pains of looking for an ideal job in the Philippines, many Filipinos desire to work abroad instead. However, applying for work abroad requires a local work experience of at least two (2) years before migrating for work. Furthermore, the salary of an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) working on a normal position ranges from Php 40,000 to Php 100,000. Therefore, the migration rush is real for a high-risk, high-reward to put their lives on the road to prosperity.
However, applying abroad is not easy because of the necessary requirements prior to work. Moreover, applying on unauthenticated agencies would endanger career, time, and money into human trafficking and employment scams.
Since most of the openings abroad are the Middle East, job applicants are more cautious to apply for the job because of employers' maltreatment toward their workers. Thus, most of the applicants are scanning for job availability online, instead of travelling into agencies to save time and money.
Moreover, the applicant would land a job if he/she is neither computer-literate, college graduate, nor had a backer (backdoor referrer) to get into a job. The jobs he/she would be hired on grunt jobs (like factory worker, construction worker, and the like).
It's hard to admit that labor mismatch is inevitable... if the standards of hiring job applicants will change.
6. Labor discrimination
Labor discrimination exists either if the applicant is underqualified for the job entry, especially if the applicant is differently-abled (persons with disability). Despite having a lot of technological advances to seek a fair game for those who had disabilities, Human Resource representatives and employers would always seek for those who will pass their standards, and will never give opportunity for underqualified/disabled applicants.Moreover, the applicant would land a job if he/she is neither computer-literate, college graduate, nor had a backer (backdoor referrer) to get into a job. The jobs he/she would be hired on grunt jobs (like factory worker, construction worker, and the like).
It's hard to admit that labor mismatch is inevitable... if the standards of hiring job applicants will change.
