The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) in Western Visayas is calling on job seekers to check the 4,478 vacancies available during the virtual job fair, one of the events lined up in celebration of the 123rd Independence Day on June 12, 2021.

“We are inviting all job seekers to join our virtual job fair and webinars. The series of webinars talk of success stories of businessmen and women here in Western Visayas,” said DOLE-6 regional director Cyril L. Ticao in a virtual press conference Thursday afternoon, June 10.

Dubbed “Trabaho, Negosyo at Kabuhayan,” the virtual job fair gathered the participation of 31 employers: three from the government offering 1,048 jobs and 28 from the local private firms with 3,430 vacancies.

He added that since it is online, applicants from various parts of the region are invited to apply as participating employees are not just from Iloilo but also other provinces.

Interested applicants are advised to log in at the job fair platform www.mynimo.com/dole6-jobs.

Upon opening, they can already see the available vacancies to include among others steelworkers, manufacturing and services sectors, and business process outsourcing.

During the job fair, the employers may already conduct on-the-spot interview with applicants.

Meantime, Ticao said the region has posted a higher employment rate this second quarter of the year as per the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

This year the employment rate has increased to 92.5 percent in April from the 90.9 percent employment rate in January. The unemployment rate consequently dropped to 7.5 percent during the same period from 9.1 percent in January.

The rise in the employment rate was attributed to the opening of more establishments due to a more relaxed quarantine classification.

“That means we are slowly recuperating from the effects of this pandemic. It is a goal of this government to attain prosperity for its people by creating decent jobs and increasing income through wage employment and entrepreneurship,” Ticao said.PNA