BAGUIO CITY – The services sector continues to have the highest number of job vacancies in the Cordillera Administrative Region as tourism-related business increase both in numbers and its contribution to the regional economic output.
The Philippine Statistics Authority earlier reported that services sector is the main driver of the region’s growth in 2024, with the tourism accounting for around 69.4 percent.
Citing comparative reports on key employment sectors within a five-year period, Imelda Romanillos, Department of Labor and Employment-CAR director, said services accounted for 68 percent of employment in the region in 2023, up from the 47 percent in 2019.
“This was primarily driven by the growth of the accommodation and food services, transport and storage and other service activities in the region,” she said.
DOLE regional data as of 2024 show that job positions with the most number of vacancies include service crew, accounts officer, customer service assistant, technical support, executive assistant, telemarketer, cashier, non-formal education teacher and food server.
The preferred occupation among job seekers are also in the services sector – – service crew, office clerks, administrative aides, domestic helper, laborer, cashiers, housekeepers and sales ladies.
To ensure availability of qualitied workers, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), in a separate report, said about 25,585 scholarships, amounting to PHP568.29 million, have been allocated for this year.
As of March 31, there are about 1,470 approved scholarship slots with a budget of PHP50.26 million, most of them allocated for Baguio and Benguet.
These scholarships are focused on skills training for tourism-related businesses like barista, bar tendering, cookery, housekeeping, and front office service, as well as agriculture and organic agriculture.
“We provide skills scholarships annually, which is our mandate. The programs we focus on are demand-driven,” said Allen Yadao of the operations office of TESDA-CAR on Wednesday. He added that the skills trainings allow individuals to obtain a national certification, which qualifies them as professionals in their field. **Liza Agoot
