THE NUMBER of Filipino workers deployed to other parts of the world grew by 14.6% to two million last year from 2007, a 2008 survey released last week by the National Statistics Office (NSO) show.

The survey, which covered Filipinos working abroad during the period April 1-Sept. 30 last year, shows that those from the CALBARZON (Calamba-Laguna-Batangas-Rizal-Quezon), Central Luzon and National Capital Region accounted for nearly half, or 46.9%, of the two million deployed last year.

There were 1.7 million overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who left the country to seek job elsewhere in 2007, according to the NSO survey.

“Filipinos are really testing their luck in other countries to receive higher wages,” director general of Employers Confederation of the Philippines Vicente Leogardo, Jr. told BusinessWorld in a telephone interview.

Overseas contract workers (OCWs), or those with existing work contracts abroad, accounted for 94% or 1.9 million of the total OFWs during the period.

The survey found that one out of three OFWs is an unskilled worker, including domestic helpers, cleaners and manufacturing laborers. The 2008 NSO survey had 51,000 households for its respondents.

Saudi Arabia remained a key destination for OFWs, attracting 20.3% of the total two million OFWs for the period, higher than its 19.8% share in 2007.

Other popular destinations were United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and Qatar.

“We can expect continued healthy deployment of labor from the country next year because of economic developments globally,” Mr. Leogardo said.

“This would also mean higher remittances from OFWs, which helped the country to be resilient from the global economic crisis,” he pointed out.

Combined remittances from land-based and sea-based OFWs amounted $16.4 billion in 2008, 13.9% higher than the $14.4 billion reported in 2007, latest data from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed.

Based on the NSO’s 2008 survey, meanwhile, remittances from April to September last year reached P141.9 billion, P32.1 billion more than the P109.8 billion estimate in 2007.

“OFWs working in Asia, comprising 78.2% of all OFWs, sent the biggest cash remittance of P69.9 billion. Among occupation groups, OFWs working as laborers or unskilled workers posted the highest cash remittance of P19.5 billion,” the NSO said.

BY DANIEL ANNE B. NEPOMUCENO, Researcher