8K jobs up for grabs in ‘Happy Jobs Fair’

CEBU, Philippines - At least 8,250 job vacancies will be made available to applicants on Saturday, May 27, at the one-day "Happy Jobs Fair" event in SM City Cebu.

Organized by career website Mynimo.com, the number of jobs this year is 22 percent higher from last year's demand for employees, said Mynimo.com president and chief executive officer (CEO) Wesley Chiongbian.

Leading the pack of employers are Business Process Outsourcing (BPOs), IT related companies, and firms needing sales and marketing professionals, engineers, among others.

Based on the company's survey, there is an immediate shortage of call center workers in Cebu.

"Although we normally connect employers and job seekers through our website, we still find the need to create more awareness about the thousands of career opportunities available in Cebu, especially for applicants who do not have access to internet," said Chiongbian.

Now on its 10th year, Mynimo.com is the largest locally-based online job portal, which had been helping job seekers to easily find jobs over the internet.

During a job fair like this one, Chiongbian said on-the-spot hiring is consistently high. In fact, last year Mynimo.com recorded 152 applicants during the fair who were hired during the day. The rest were hired days and weeks after.

To date, over 6,000 applicants have already registered for the event, with 80 percent of them indicating that they have prior work experience. About 65 percent of the registrants indicated that they are college graduates, while 44 percent of those who have signed up are between 21 to 25 years old.

Sixty-seven percent of the registrants are currently unemployed. Females comprise 61 percent of the total registrants.

Aside from jobs, the event will also feature talks from representatives of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP). Topics like how to increase chances of getting hired, among others will be tackled.

Government agencies like Social Security System (SSS), Philhealth and Pag-ibig will also be present during the event to assist the applicants with pre-employment concerns.

Since its launch in 2006, Mynimo.com has become the country's most popular and highest ranking homegrown website. Forbes magazine recognized the company as one of the leading start-ups in the Philippines. (FREEMAN)