BPO, tourism buoy Central Visayas employment rate
The business process outsourcing (BPO), tourism, and construction sectors spurred the high employment rate in the Central Visayas in January, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). The region’s employment rate stood at 94.8% in January, slightly better than the 94.2% in January 2018, while unemployment stood at 5.2%. The underemployment rate was also down to 18.4% during the said period. DOLE 7 Director Salome Siaton said the latest data suggests that there is greater improvement in the quality of jobs in the Central Visayas, although she added that there is still a high presence of job mismatches among the labor force in the region. Based on official labor data, the industries of BPO, tourism, and construction have jobs that are difficult to fill. DOLE has already consulted these sectors to determine the specific skills that they require. Cebu, the center of the Central Visayas, has more than 150,000 BPO workers.
