THE Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) yesterday said jobs in the agriculture industry are in demand but there are no takers, adding job seekers prefer to work abroad or seek other higher-paying jobs.
“While the Philippines is transitioning to an economy with more emphasis on manufacturing and service, it is still an agricultural country,” Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said.
“It is hard for employers to fill these jobs since many qualified applicants prefer to work abroad, seek higher pay, or have problems with work schedule or location,” he added.
He noted that in-demand occupations refer to job vacancies posted recurrently by establishments and industries and have high turnover or replacement rate.
Hard-to-fill occupations, on the other hand, refer to job vacancies where the company is having difficulty filling because job applicants are not qualified or there is no supply of job applicants.
Data from the Bureau of Local Employment (BLE) showed there are 711 Agricultural and Biosystems Engineers who have passed the licensure examination.
There are also, more or less, 1,000 new agricultural and biosystems engineering graduates who are about to enter the labor market.
Given the challenges faced by the agricultural sector, Bello said they have decided to tie up with the Department of Agriculture (DA) to have young agricultural professionals deployed to various offices and projects under the DOLE’s Government Internship Program (GIP).
DOLE-GIP is a program that aims to provide opportunities and engage young workers to serve in government agencies, projects and programs at the national and local levels.
Under the deal, the agricultural professionals, such as agricultural economist, animal husbandry, aqua-culturist, and several others, will be deployed by the DA to various government projects and offices in the country.
