http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/05/01/15/govt-deployed-more-ofws-it-created-jobs-2014-ibon
Gov’t deployed more OFWs than it created jobs in 2014 – IBON
ABS-CBNnews.com
Posted at 05/01/2015 5:11 PM
MANILA – More Filipinos were deployed to job opportunities overseas than hired domestically in 2014, research group IBON said on Friday.
Citing data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), IBON said 1.7 million Filipinos were deployed to work overseas, or a daily average of 4,508 leaving every day.
The number of domestically employed Filipinos, on the other hand, was only 1.02 million in 2014, or a daily average of 2,805 additional employed in the country.
In a statement, IBON said the inability of the domestic economy to create enough jobs for the labor force which forces millions of Filipinos abroad “is a serious and continuing failure of government economic policy.”
“The government’s refusal to give active protection and support for Filipino industry and agriculture is an economically irrational concession to foreign investors. Foreign investors have an interest in keeping the economy backward as a captive market for their products and to ensure that there is no domestic industry that would threaten their supply of cheap Filipino labor and raw materials,” the group added.
IBON urged government to work towards reorienting economic policy to build national industry and develop domestic agriculture.
The group said this is necessary in putting the economy on a path which creates domestic jobs, increases workers’ incomes, and stops the forced migration of millions of Filipinos.