The Highest Paying Jobs For OFWs
Manpower and skilled professionals are two of the biggest exports of the Philippines to the world. With a promise of better employment conditions and desirable career paths, overseas jobs have become appealing to many Filipino professionals. That is why the number of professionals and skilled workers is growing relentlessly year-on-year.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the number of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who worked abroad was estimated at 2.2 million, with Overseas Contract Workers (OCWs) or those with existing work contracts made up 97.5% of them in the period of April to September 2016.
On the other hand, an online recruitment website for OFWs, Workabroad.ph, has generated a report showing the numbers behind the OFW employment across the world. Among the things that they’ve presented in their report are the highest paying jobs for Filipinos overseas and the top countries of deployment for Filipinos.
Before we dive into the details, here’s a quick breakdown of how OFWs are dominating the world of employment globally in 2015, based on the data from the Department of Foreign Affair:
Estimated number of Filipinos overseas in 2015
Total: 7,979,716 of Filipinos were deployed overseas as OFWs
| Region | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Americas | 3,896,853 | 4,111,095 | 3,908,601 | 4,107,543 | 4,146,066 | 3,750,388 |
| Asia and Pacific | 1,675,507 | 1,973,224 | 2,028,396 | 2,046,145 | 1,974,831 | 1,497,859 |
| Europe | 715,627 | 746,701 | 782,878 | 768,999 | 743,826 | 433,918 |
| Middle East and Africa | 2,868,272 | 2,681,130 | 2,050,475 | 2,169,992 | 2,205,706 | 2,297,551 |
| Total | 9,156,259 | 9,512,150 | 8,770,350 | 9,092,679 | 9,070,429 |
7,979,716
|
Top 25 countries with the highest number of OFWs
| 1 | United States of America | 3,353,891 |
| 2 | Kingdom of Saudi Arabia | 938,490 |
| 3 | Canada | 676,775 |
| 4 | Malaysia | 620,043 |
| 5 | United Arab Emirates | 541,593 |
| 6 | Japan | 313,588 |
| 7 | Australia | 304,093 |
| 8 | Italy | 299,787 |
| 9 | China | 229,638 |
| 10 | Singapore | 200,000 |
| 11 | United Kingdom | 200,000 |
| 12 | Qatar | 198,000 |
| 13 | Kuwait | 187,067 |
| 14 | Bahrain | 158,644 |
| 15 | Taiwan | 115,055 |
| 16 | Puerto Rico | 91,620 |
| 17 | Greece | 61,681 |
| 18 | Republic of Korea | 52,379 |
| 19 | France | 44,967 |
| 20 | New Zealand | 41,146 |
| 21 | Oman | 39,483 |
| 22 | Jordan | 28,676 |
| 23 | Lebanon | 27,812 |
| 24 | Spain | 26,946 |
| 25 | Israel | 25,000 |
Top 10 countries Filipinos would like to work in
Since 2004, Saudi Arabia has been the number one country in Philippine Overseas Employment Administration’s (POEA) deployment statistics. It has been the source of most jobs with an average of 287,000 jobs yearly.
However, based on JobStreet.com’s data on jobseekers’ online behavior, overseas aspirants seem to want to work in the following countries:
- Macau
- South Korea
- Qatar
- Bahrain
- Japan
- UAE
- North America (USA and Canada)
- Europe
- Singapore
- Australia and New Zealand
Source