By Roderick T. dela Cruz

THE number of Filipinos leaving to work abroad continues to rise despite the global economic slowdown and the layoffs resulting from it, an official said yesterday.

A total of 5,700 Filipinos had been laid off abroad as of March 4, but that number was equivalent to only two days of the Philippines’ daily deployment of workers bound for work overseas, said Dennis Arroyo, planning and policy director at the National Economic and Development Authority.

“The total displacements equal less than two days of deployment,” Arroyo said.

“Despite the global crisis, an average of 3,000 [Filipinos] leave the country every day, and about 1,000 return every month. The return rate is the same level as in 2007.”

Earlier, the Labor Department said the government sent 165,000 Filipino workers abroad in January, an increase of 25 percent from a year ago.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration said the numbers that month were the opposite of what had been expected.

Over 1.37 million Filipinos left to work abroad last year, up 27.8 percent from 1.08 million in 2007.

But the money they send home was expected to remain flat this year—or around last year’s $16.4 billion—as the crisis affecting the major economies might also affect the hiring of Filipino workers in 2009, the central bank said.

Arroyo said most of the Filipino workers laid off so far were sent home from Taiwan, but the United States and Europe continued to hire Filipinos, and in particular teachers and health care professionals.

He said Australia would need at least 120,000 skilled laborers by 2010 to take up jobs that could not be filled by its aging population, while Canada was giving priority to Filipino nurses.

Japan initially needed 200 nurses and 300 caregivers by April under an economic treaty signed with the Philippines, he said.

The United Kingdom would need staff for its nursing homes to take care of its 10-million elderly, and the Middle East—Saudi Arabia in particular—would need Filipino construction workers to build five new cities.

The United Arab Emirates needed skilled labor for its expanding healthcare, construction and tourism sectors, Arroyo said.

Arroyo acknowledged that 42,000 Filipinos have been laid off from the industrial zones in Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon.

But he said the business process outsourcing sector remained a bright spot because it continued to hire workers.