DOLE to resume face-to-face job fairs

MANILA, Philippines — To generate more employment opportunities, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is set to resume face-to-face job fairs nationwide, an official said on Wednesday.

Labor Assistant Secretary Dominique Tutay said the DOLE is preparing to mount face-to-face job fairs by the end of the month.

The DOLE is in the process of identifying the vacancies and possible venues for the job fairs, Tutay said.

She said pre-employment services would be made available to job applicants.

“Public employment service offices requested for the resumption of face-to-face assessment and job interviews,” Tutay said at a press briefing.

The DOLE assured the public that minimum healths standards would be observed during the job fairs. There will be online registration to avoid overcrowding in the venues.

“We will have a cut-off on a specific day. Kung makita natin na maraming jobseekers, we will do it in batches,” Tutay said.

According to Tutay, employers are having difficulties in hiring workers through online recruitment.

“One of the challenges is that virtual hiring could only accommodate limited number of job applicants,” she said.

Due to quarantine restrictions, Tutay said the DOLE is still far from reaching its target of generating one million jobs this year.

“Hundreds of thousands of jobs have been generated, but we are still far from the one million target,” she said.

Among the jobs created came from construction and manufacturing sectors, the DOLE said.

Tutay said the government continues to work with the private sector to achieve the goal of generating one million jobs.