Locals told: Find jobs at private companies

Because of shrinking available jobs in the government, Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio has prodded local residents to turn to the private sector for employment where they have more chances of getting hired.

Declining revenue collections and streamlining of the bureaucracy are factors preventing from absorbing more residents into government service, the governor explained.

“I urge the locals to work for the private sector, it’s worth the hard work,” said Tenorio, who himself worked in the private sector before he ran for public office.

Higher pay and better benefits attract local residents to work in the government, the biggest single biggest employer in the commonwealth. There are more than 4,000 employees under government payroll.

However, the worsening financial crisis has forced the Tenorio administration to purge unnecessary positions and posts teeming with duplication. So far, 900 budgeted positions have been eliminated, and officials say over 200 teacher contracts may not be renewed due to fund shortage.

The number of local residents seeking jobs in the private sector tripled in 1998 to 1,516 from 561 compared to year-ago figures, based on statistics from the Department of Labor and Immigration.

However, it did not indicate if these workers are locally-born US citizens or Micronesians. The figures also did not include residents who had been hired in local companies without seeking assistance from the labor and immigration department.

Officials attributed the 170 percent increase in applicants to either unavailability of jobs in the government and closures of private companies because of the economic slump.

Last year two hundred sixty locals, or an increase of 180 percent compared to 1997, found jobs in the private sector largely dependent on guest workers, mostly from the Philippines and China. Estimates show more than 90 percent of the positions in the sector are held by non-residents.

The labor and immigration department is strictly enforcing a law that requires private companies to consider the application of any resident referred by DOLI’s employment division before hiring or renewing contracts of foreign workers.

This policy has been widely criticized by private sector employers who felt they were being forced to accept locals even if they do not meet the minimum requirement for the jobs they are applying.