No. of alien workers decline

Revenues generated from foreign worker permit applications climbed by over $1 million despite an 8.5-percent decline in the number of work permits issued in fiscal year 2005, compared with FY 2004.

Data from the Labor and Immigration Identification System showed that nonresident worker application fees totaled $8.7 million last fiscal year—up from $7.5 million two years ago.

This occurred in spite of the decreased number of foreign workers registered with the Department of Labor. In FY 2005, LIIDS issued 33,294 permits, a decline from 36,410 permits the year before that.

The increased collection is attributed to the $50 increase in the labor fee that was implemented in August 2004.

Employers used to pay $225 annually for the registration of each nonresident worker in the CNMI. The application fee consisted of a $175 alien labor permit fee, a $25 entry permit fee, and a $25 alien deportation fee.

However, pursuant to the Aug. 6, 2004 implementation of the amended Alien Labor Rules and Regulations, the fee for a nonresident worker application was raised to $275 annually.

Labor also collects a fee of $10 a month from each nonresident worker wishing to extend his or her permit for a period less than 90 days of the original expiration.

Had the number of nonresident workers stayed at its FY2004 level, the government would have collected as much as $10 million in FY2005.

BY INDUSTRY

Despite closures and downsizing, the garment industry remained the biggest employer of nonresident workers in FY 2005, accounting for 42 percent of the total number.

The apparel industry employed 13,922 workers in FY 2005, down by 4 percent from 14,513 in FY 2004.

The service sector also cut its nonresident workforce by 13 percent—from 11,029 in FY 2004 to 9,550 in FY 2005.

Hotels employed 2,447 foreign workers in FY 2005, a 9-percent decrease from FY 2004.

A total of 2,460 nonresidents worked in private households in FY 2005, also down by 9 percent from two years ago.

The rest of the workers were employed by construction companies, the CNMI government, the tourism industry, restaurants and nightclubs, and other sectors.

FY2006

Data obtained from LIIDS did not show the number of permits issued so far this year. But the figures indicate that the government had collected about $3 million in labor fees between Oct. 1, 2005 and March 8, 2006.

Based on available data, the service sector, which employed less workers than the garment industry in recent years, has now paid more labor fees to the government that the garment factories.

Alien employment in the service sector generated $1.05 million in revenues in the first five months of the fiscal year. This represents about 40 percent of the industry’s FY 2005 payment level.

The garment factories have paid a combined $932,520 as of last week. This represents only 28.6 percent of the industry’s FY 2005 level.

“The revenues are declining and they will continue to decline as a result of garment factory closures. Labor is no longer processing as many permits as before. It’s also concerning that even thought permits have declined, many of those displaced workers are still on island,” said press secretary Charles P. Reyes Jr.