Unemployment and the OFW phenomenon: an evaluation of the outward-oriented job generation policy of the Arroyo administration.

Abstract

For decades, unemployment has been a major problem in the Philippines. Leaders have tried to address it by generating local jobs, but their efforts are simply not enough; hence, the creation of labor migration policies that have persisted over the years.

Labor migration has been the answer of past administrations to the country's surplus labor, this way the government allows foreign economies to absorb our excess human resources and at the same time benefit from the remittances that the overseas workers send back home which is an important source of foreign exchange and plays an important role in economic development of the country.

This study investigates the determinants of international labor migration and its impact to the Filipino society. The study also scrutinizes the labor policies of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo that are supposed to address the alarming number of unemployed Filipinos.

The results reveal that the shortage of domestic jobs pushes Filipinos to seek employment in foreign lands. Unemployment has been a major determinant of out-migration from the Philippines; although the government argues that they produce adequate jobs, the underlying problem is that the jobs created do not match the skills of the Filipino labor force. The Philippine government, also, indirectly promotes labor migration primarily because they believe that it allows labor mobility which then creates domestic jobs.