Kuwait needs 12,000 workers for this year

MANILA, Philippines — Kuwait needs 12,000 workers this year and Filipinos have a good chance of getting a big portion of these jobs, the Philippine Overseas Labor Office (POLO) in Kuwait said on Tuesday. Labor Attaché Josephus Jimenez, POLO head in Kuwait, said Filipinos are among the highly preferred workers in Kuwait and are paid higher than other foreign workers. "Kuwait is not a credit economy, it is a cash economy, and it will continue to need people for jobs in hotels, malls, fast-food chains, and hospitals," Jimenez told reporters in a chance interview. He added that the oil industry as well as construction would still continue to need workers . Jimenez also claimed that not a single Filipino worker had been displaced or retrenched as a result of the financial crisis. He said his office is now taking steps to find better job contracts for overseas Filipino workers since the Philippine government aims to stay away from the "the five Ds -- dirty, difficult, dangerous, degrading, and deceptive." There are currently 140,000 OFWs in Kuwait, nearly half of them or about 60,000 employed as household service workers. - GMANews.TV