To fulfill its mandate of generating jobs and other economic opportunities, Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) has partnered with WorkBank Philippines Inc. to make job vacancies easily accessible to Filipinos seeking employment with PEZA-registered companies.
This initiative is in line with the Development Outreach for Labor, Livelihood, and Advancement (DOLLAR) program which was launched by the PEZA Director General Charito Plaza July last year with the support of the Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Labor and Employment, and the Office of Senator Bong Go.
Even with the recent surge of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases and the resulting community quarantine, Plaza reiterated that “PEZA is strongly committed and unrelenting in its efforts to promote investment and employment that will benefit Filipinos despite the challenges brought about by the pandemic.”
PEZA’s DOLLAR program initiative of conducting a virtual job fair aims to inform the public of thousands of jobs available in different types of industries in various ecozones.
The program is also in support of the Administrative Order No. 18, otherwise known as “Accelerating Rural Progress Through Robust Development of Special Economic Zones in the Countryside” and Executive Order No. 114, also known as the “Balik Probinsya, Bagong Pag-asa Program”.
The DOLLAR program’s job expo online job search platform is powered by WorkBank which was established on Nov. 28, 2018 by virtue of “malasakit” or compassion and care program, bridging businesses with qualified and primed talents.
It is an online job site that primarily helps job seekers connect to various job opportunities locally and abroad.
WorkBank reported a total of 17,500 job vacancies with 60 companies tagged under the special category for PEZA, 16 of which are currently active with jobs posted online.
Of these 16 active companies, 62 percent are business process outsourcing (BPO) and call center companies followed by information technology (12 percent), manufacturing (12 percent), and transport and logistics (12 percent).
In terms of applicants for PEZA-related companies, there are over 22,500 applicants in the first three months of 2021. From August 2020 up to the present, WorkBank recorded over 40,000 applicants.
However, WorkBank said it is quite challenging to obtain accurate data in determining how many of these applicants were hired since only a few companies are reporting back to their system regarding the number of their newly hired employees.
Meanwhile, PEZA was also recently added to WorkBank’s “Live Programs” section.
This section serves as an additional promotional field on the job search category to essentially highlight the ongoing job opportunities in various PEZA-registered companies.
Likewise, WorkBank offered its discount to companies under PEZA at 65 percent to further boost the agency’s initiatives in generating employment in the Philippines.
Of the 17,500 job vacancies, active companies under PEZA are Alorica, Teleperformance, Wells Fargo Philippines, VXI, iOPEX Technologies Philippines, Synchrony Global Services Philippines Inc., and Wideout Workforces Inc.
There are also new companies that joined the online job search platform namely: Optum, Sykes, Accenture, Honda Philippines, Inc., HGS, and Ayala Land Premier.
Repatriated OFWs, fresh graduates, unemployed Filipinos, those who are looking for work-from-home arrangements, and any interested applicants can access the online job portal 24/7 and create their own account for free through this link: www.workbank.com/peza.
