For many of this year’s graduates, the joy at getting to march on stage and receive the hard-earned diploma will most likely be short-lived as they would soon face the difficulty of finding jobs that match their degrees.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat

For many of this year’s graduates, the joy at getting to march on stage and receive the hard-earned diploma will most likely be short-lived as they would soon face the difficulty of finding jobs matching the degrees they completed.

Even Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas has long been lamenting the mismatch between the graduates being produced by the country’s colleges and universities and the jobs available. She sees it as one of the factors behind the country’s increasing unemployment rate – something that she has been saying for a number of years now.

“Job-skill mismatch is a very serious matter that must be addressed and given sufficient priority if we are to effectively deal with our employment and underemployment problems,” she said in a media interview way back in 2003.

Based on data from the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), 447,847 students are expected to finish college this year. A look at how they are distributed across the disciplines would show how many – or how few – of them would be getting opportunities for employment relevant to what they studied for.

Out of this number, 126,631 or 28 percent would be earning degrees in business administration and related courses like accountancy and secretarial courses. Charlie Calimlim of the CHED’s statistics department said these programs also yielded the most graduates in the last two years.

Next to business administration, the courses that produced the most number of graduates are as follows: education and teacher-training courses (90,259), engineering and technology programs, including marine engineering (54,897), information technology (41,403), and medical and allied courses like nursing, radiological technology, and medicine (30,919).

If last year’s employment trends would repeat themselves, the prospects of getting jobs matching qualifications would be next to an impossible dream for most of the 447,847 students expected to graduate this year.

The Philippine Labor Force Survey of January 2006 shows in 2005, the country’s largest employer was the services sector. Almost all areas of employment in the services sector, except health and social work, registered increases resulting in an overall growth of 371,000 – from 15.3 million in January 2005 to 15.7 million in January 2006.

The services sector includes the following areas: wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles and personal and household goods; hotels and restaurants; transport, storage and communication; financial intermediation; real estate, renting and business activities; public administration and defense, compulsory social security; education; health and social work; other community, social and personal service activities; private households with employed persons; and extra-territorial organizations and bodies.

On the other hand, employment for government officials and special interest which covers executives of corporations and organizations, managers, managing proprietors and supervisors grew only by 61,000 – from 3.675 million in January 2005 to 3.736 million in January 2006.

These are the most likely occupations that may absorb the fresh batch of graduates. But since managerial positions are filled up only by those with relevant experience, fresh graduates of business administration and related courses will most likely end up as clerks, sales persons, secretaries, and receptionists in the hope that one day, they will rise up the corporate ladder.

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