PHILIPPINES NEWS SERVICE — TWO-THIRDS of the 1.515 million Filipinos working overseas are executives, professionals and skilled workers, and only one in every three is an unskilled worker, according to a survey by the National Statistics Office.
The agency did the survey from April to September 2006, when the workers remitted P102 billion to the Philippines.
That amount did not represent the total salary received by the workers, and “may just be a part of [their] total salary,” the agency says.
The average amount that the Filipino professionals remitted during the period was P91,000, more than double the P38,200 remitted by laborers and unskilled workers.
In recent years, the Philippines has been deploying more women and younger workers abroad.
The NSO estimates that there were 764,000 female Filipino workers and 751,000 male Filipino workers abroad last year, and that most of them came from the so-called Calabarzon area, Metro Manila and Central Luzon.
It says executives comprise about 2.7 percent of all migrant workers; professionals, 8.6 percent; technicians and associate professionals, 6.8 percent; and clerks, 4.3 percent.
The 2006 survey covered only Filipinos working abroad during the survey period and those who were at home on vacation from their jobs.
The NSO polled contract workers, other Filipino workers abroad with valid working visas or work permits, and those who had no working visas or work permits but were employed and working full time in other countries.
Migrant workers in Asia made up 78.3 percent of all those surveyed, and they remitted the most money.
The central bank expects remittances to top $14 billion this year, or about 12 percent of the Philippines’ gross domestic product.