Employment Services gets only 1 in 5 clients hired

Only one out of every five local job applicants registered with the Division of Employment Services and Training during the first three quarters of 2004 has been successfully hired.

Statistics from the DEST Job Placement Unit showed that a total of 1,087 resident workers registered with the agency from January to September 2004.

Of these workers, only 231 or 21 percent have been placed for employment, while 271 were classified as inactive. The remaining 585 applicants will be carried over for job placement.

This means that DEST is finding jobs for four local workers every five days.

According to DEST data, 484 or almost half of the 1,087 registered applicants were local workers who have been in the agency’s system since 2003. DEST, thus far, has not placed these workers for employment.

The other 633 employees were registered starting January this year.

In an interview, DEST director Alfred Pangelinan said the Job Placement Unit’s performance is actually commendable considering that there are only two persons—Alice I. Concepcion and Danita S. Nedlic—doing all the job in the unit.

Pangelinan said the ideal personnel size for the unit is seven workers.

He added that the low placement rate could be attributed to various other factors beyond the division’s control.

According to Pangelinan, some applicants only register with the division to satisfy the requirements of the Nutrition Assistance Program. “They’re not really interested in getting work; they just want to keep receiving food stamps,” he said.

Another reason is that some applicants do not leave their correct contact details when they register, leaving the DEST personnel without means to reach them in case a potential employer has been found.

“Sometimes, they leave a number, and that phone ends up disconnected. There are also cases when we try to call applicants using the numbers they leave with us and the person on the other line tells us the applicant does not even live there,” Pangelinan said.

Such cases, he said, comprise those classified as inactive.
Further, Pangelinan said some applicants fail to follow up after registering with the division. He urged such workers to call DEST from time to time to show that they are really interested in the job, and not just re-appear some three months after registering.

In the first quarter, the Job Placement Unit was working on matching or placing a total of 622 applicants for employment, DEST data showed.

The report reflects that 64 applicants were placed, and 78 were classified as inactive due to numerous reasons, ranging from disconnected contact numbers to off-island relocation.

In the second quarter, the unit had 720 applicants waiting to be placed. Only 103 of these workers got employed, while 151 were classified as inactive.

In the third quarter, 689 applicants were registered with the unit. Only 64 applicants, or 9 percent, were placed and 40 applicants, or 6 percent, were classified as inactive.