Where Do Remote Talents in the Philippines Want To Work?

The Philippines has improved its ranking by 11 spots since 2020 in terms of being a career destination for foreign jobseekers. It has climbed to 56th place in 2023, from 67th in 2020 and 66th in 2019.

However, talent in the Philippines still displays a strong interest in relocating abroad for work. This is according to Decoding Global Talent 2024 by Jobstreet by SEEK, Boston Consulting Group, and The Network.

How the Philippines Was Ranked as a Career Destination

Decoding Global Talent 2024 is based on a survey of 150,735 respondents in the workforce from 188 countries, with up to 91 percent of them living in their country of origin. Up to 38 percent of the global respondents also have a bachelor's degree.

According to the study, "The global perception of the Philippines as a place of employment for those seeking opportunities abroad has seen a notable uptick, with its ranking improving by 11 spots since 2020, reaching number 56 in 2023. However, it is still far compared to top global countries and ranks low within Southeast Asia (SEA)."

Global respondents gave the following reasons why they chose the Philippines for work:

• welcoming culture and inclusiveness (52%)

• perceived good quality of life (45%)

• cost of living (43%)

• quality of job opportunities (43%)

• friendly environment (43%)

• work permit processes (23%)

• stability and security (23%)

The following factors, however, ranked low: opportunities for citizenship (16%), digitalization (16%), and healthcare (15%).

Among the job seekers expressing interest in working in the Philippines are those from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and even the U.S. and Canada.

Filipinos Still Want to Work Abroad

Despite these survey results among foreigners, up to 80 percent of Filipino talents have expressed readiness to relocate abroad for work. This number is higher than the rest of Southeast Asia, which has a 68 percent readiness, and globally, which has 63 percent readiness.

Reasons for Filipinos to work abroad:

• Financial and economic reasons (80%)

• general career considerations (65%)

• better overall quality of life (64%)

• concrete job offer (60%)

• personal growth and cultural experience (53%)

• better social system and healthcare (53%)

• better educational and training opportunities (45%)

• more interesting and challenging work (42%)

These numbers are all significantly higher than the SEA and Global average.

There is also a difference when it comes to the age of candidates. Globally, younger jobseekers tend to work abroad; but in the Philippines, this willingness to go to another country for a job cuts across all ages.

About 35 percent of Filipinos also said that they prefer to work abroad long-term, without plans of returning to the Philippines. This is another significant difference as overseas workers from neighboring countries keep three-year assignments and then return home.

The expertise of Filipino employees who are looking to relocate is very diverse. Up to 94 percent are in the craft professions, manual, and physical work; 90 percent are in research and laboratory; 87 percent are in engineering and technical industries; and 86 percent are in services and hospitality. Other significant fields include digitalization, education, business management, IT, design and art, and more.

Those in marketing and media are at the lowest percentage, with only 73 percent of them willing to work abroad.

Out of 80 percent of Filipino workers showing interest in international employment, 42 percent of them are hoping to move to Canada. Other countries they want to relocate to are Australia (39%), the U.S. (27%), Japan (23%), and New Zealand (21%).

Top cities to work in globally

It should be noted that the pandemic affected these interests. Back in 2018 and 2020, readiness to work abroad was at 96 percent and 91 percent, showing a huge decline in 2024. Filipino professionals are now also more eager to work remotely for a foreign employer with an 84 percent interest, above Southeast Asia and global trends.

These statistics are based on a survey of 6,498 workforce participants in the Philippines, 76 percent of whom had a bachelor's degree.

PH Decoding Global Talent 2024

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Source: Philstar

PHL 73rd in strength-of-passport ranking

The Philippine passport was ranked 73rd in terms of visa-free access to other countries, according to the Henley Passport Index (HPI).

HPI reported that the Philippine passport grants its holder visa-free access to 67 countries.

“The Philippine passport has been fairly consistent on the Henley Passport Index with a slight trend upwards,” Henley & Partners Managing Director and Head for Southeast Asia Scott Moore said in a briefing.

“The Philippine economy is growing on average between six to seven and a half percent annually over the past decade, and we anticipate this growth will continue.”

He noted the ”strong correlation” between a country’s visa-free tally and its economic prosperity.

The Philippines ranked 83rd in 2021, 77th in 2022, 78th in 2023, and 73rd in January and July 2024.

Philippines's Global Access

“As the economy continues to grow and develop, the passport score should continue to trend upward. It’s important to keep in mind that the Philippines is growing definitely at a higher rate than the established Western countries,” Mr. Moore said.

The visa-free destination count of 67 represented a fall of two countries after Armenia and Togo changed their rules from “visa-on-arrival for everyone” to “e-visa for everyone,” he said.

Singapore was rated the “strongest” passport with visa-free access to 195 countries, while Afghanistan was at the bottom of the list, placing 103rd with a visa-free tally of 26 countries visa-free.

“The gap is widening between countries at the top of our index and countries at the bottom of the index, which right now is Afghanistan… that is a gap of 169 countries, which is also larger than it ever has been before,” he said.

France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Spain dropped to joint second place with visa-free access to 192 countries.

Meanwhile, Austria, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, South Korea, and Sweden were at joint third with visa-free access to 191 countries.

This was followed by Belgium, Denmark, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, and the UK were in joint fourth with visa-free access to 190 countries.

Australia and Portugal were tied for fifth with visa-free access to 189 countries.

Source: Manila Times

World's richest 1% gained US$40 trillion in a decade — Oxfam

The world's richest 1% increased their fortunes by a total of $42 trillion over the past decade, Oxfam said Thursday, ahead of a G20 summit in Brazil where taxing the super-rich tops the agenda.

Despite this windfall, taxes on the rich had plummeted to "historic lows", the NGO added, warning of "obscene levels" of inequality with the rest of the world "left to scrap for crumbs".

Brazil has made international cooperation on taxing the super-rich a priority of its presidency of the G20, a group of countries representing 80% of the world's GDP.

At this week's summit in Rio de Janeiro, the group's finance ministers are expected to make progress on ways to raise levies on the ultra-wealthy and prevent billionaires from dodging tax systems.

The initiative involves determining methodologies to tax billionaires and other high-income earners.

The proposal is due to be fiercely debated at the summit on Thursday and Friday, with France, Spain, South Africa, Colombia and the African Union in favour, but the United States firmly against.

Oxfam dubbed it a "real litmus test for G20 governments", urging them to implement an annual net wealth tax of at least 8% on the "extreme wealth" of the super-rich.

"Momentum to increase taxes on the super-rich is undeniable," said Oxfam International's head of inequality policy, Max Lawson.

"Do they have the political will to strike a global standard that puts the needs of the many before the greed of an elite few?"

Oxfam said that the $42 trillion figure was nearly 36 times more than the wealth accumulated by the poorer half of the world's population.

Despite this, billionaires "have been paying a tax rate equivalent to less than 0.5% of their wealth" across the globe, the NGO said.

Nearly four out of five of the world's billionaires call a G20 nation home, Oxfam noted.

Related info: UBS Data on Global wealth distribution:

global-wealth-report

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Source: Philstar