Some 16,000 jobs await Filipino nursers in the UK and at least 154,000 more are available in Hong Kong for household service workers, according to a Manila labour official, citing alternatives to overseas Filipinos workers (OFWs) affected by the "total deployment ban" in Kuwait.
The official urged would-be applicants to also try their luck in other countries — citing verified job offers from Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the US, among others.
A list of approved job offers was made available on March 9 — after the entries were vetted by the country's diplomatic posts overseas and the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), the country's job regulator.
"We have alternative markets and they (OFWs) can use their experience in Kuwait to their advantage," Jocelyn Sanchez, deputy administrator of POEA, told Manila's GMA News in Tagalog.
According to the Coalition of Licensed Agencies for Domestic and Service Workers (CLADS), the deployment ban in Kuwait has affected 10,000 skilled workers.
Citing POEA database, the report posted on March 9, said these countries are in need of the following workers:
Welders
Japan - 5,125
US - 3,632
Australia - 1,487
Singapore - 1,300
New Zealand - 900
Canada - 530
Engineers
Japan - 7,024
US - 3,383
South Korea - 3,172
Algeria - 1,184
New Zealand - 754
Assemblers
Japan - 3,671
Taiwan - 665
New Zealand - 62
Labourers
Taiwan - 657
Brunei - 350
New Zealand - 90
Czech Republic - 25
Cook
Brunei - 856
Australia - 803
Macau - 627
Cyprus - 214
Singapore - 186
Drivers
New Zealand - 229
Brunei - 86
Diego Garcia - 54
Australia - 40
Nurses
United Kingdom - 16,086
Singapore - 5,645
Ireland - 4,169
Germany - 1,595
New Zealand - 750
Household service workers
Hong Kong - 154,511
Singapore - 30,699
Cyprus - 11,325
Brunei - 6,619
Macau - 3,308
Meanwhile, overseas Filipino workers affected by the ban were also encouraged to undergo skills retraining at the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda), a state-funded program, to boost their employability based.
