Job Fairs: useless, misleading

ANAKPAWIS NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS
NEWS RELEASE
Mar 15, 2009

Job Fairs are useless and only mislead hapless workers

Anakpawis members held a “Jobless Fair” this morning at the busy Commonwealth Avenue and Litex Road in Quezon City to slam what they call “useless and misleading” job fairs spearheaded by the Department of Labor and Employment and local government units to earn “pogi points” rather than resolving the issues of illegal retrenchments, contractualization and equitable job opportunities.

“DOLE should stop fooling thousands of already miserable job seekers from fresh graduates, retrenched workers and returning OFWs through its public relations gimmick called Job Fairs,” said Anakpawis Secretary-General Cherry Clemente.

“Results of these job fairs are dismal. Only an average of less than 200 jobs is filled up vis-a-vis thousands of applicants queuing for long hours and has even come from far provinces only to be told that they are not qualified.”

Malacañang earlier reasoned that there is a “job mismatch” which means that the labor force do not qualify to available job opportunities. Clemente said that this is a fashionable scapegoat concocted by DOLE and other so-called experts to cover the incompetence of Malacañang in addressing the roots of the problem. To illustrate this, Anakpawis brought a matching type visual, showcasing a mismatch on the persons working as MMDA chief, ombudsman, DOJ secretary and most especially the President.

Anakpawis cited that the high unemployment rate is caused by the dependent, neo-colonial, export-oriented and import dependent character of our economy. This rising and continuing unemployment, they said, is further intensified due to the global economic crisis experienced by the major economies where the country is hooked-up for centuries. “Our dependence tied us to perennial rising unemployment, trade and budgetary deficits, indebtedness and backwardness”

What should be our economic goals?

“Left and right job fairs will not solve the problem. This will only aggravate the suffering of the masses who are most hit by the onslaught of the crisis of the world capitalist system. Nor will exportation of labor or entry of foreign direct investments absorb the huge joblessness in the country. What the country needs now is a radical policy shift. It is time to define our own national goal and establish a self-sufficient economy that is based on meeting the needs of the people not the profiteering of a powerful few.”

“We must build our national industries to create millions of internally generated jobs. We must free our lands from the control of a handfull of big landowners and foreign big business to liberate our landless peasants and address social inequalities. These should be our national goals in order to affect lasting change.” # # #