Saudi Arabia to hire 1 million skilled Pinoy workers

MANILA, Philippines — An estimated one million jobs are open for Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) reported yesterday.

Migrant Workers Secretary Susan Ople said she met with the private sector during a recent trip to Saudi Arabia and was informed of their need to employ skilled workers from the Philippines.

“Based on estimates, one million jobs will be available for Filipino workers in 24 months. That’s for Saudi Arabia alone because of their expansion plans,” Ople announced at a press briefing following the opening of the Asia-Gulf Cooperation Council Senior Officials Dialogue in Taguig City.

According to Ople, the DMW is planning to implement a special hiring program to address the labor needs of Saudi Arabia.

“We have to balance this because our local companies also need workers,” she said.

Before the pandemic, Migrant Workers Undersecretary Patricia Yvone Caunan noted that Saudi employed up to 1.6 million Filipinos.

To date, there are at least 700,000 Filipinos working in Saudi Arabia.

“Overwhelming ang one million jobs in 24 months. But if we prepare for that together with other government agencies, I think we will be ready for that,” Caunan said.

Among those needed in Saudi Arabia are tourism workers, construction workers, technicians, welders as well as information technology employees.

Ople said the DMW is also exploring internship opportunities for Filipino workers to sustain both the local demand and that of other countries.

Migrant Workers Undersecretary Bernard Olalia said the deployment of one million Filipinos to Saudi Arabia is possible through a government-to-government hiring scheme.

Olalia also reported that the Saudi government has confirmed that it would pay in full the unpaid claims of Filipino construction workers who were affected by the shutdown of companies that went bankrupt from 2015 to 2016.

Olalia said the Saudi government would give an update on the processing of the claims in the coming weeks.