Labor Day Facebook page gets over 1,900 jobseeker 'friends'

As Labor Day on May 1 draws closer, more than 1,900 jobseekers have signed up to become online "friends" of the Department of Labor and Employment's (DOLE) upcoming job fair. The DOLE's "Labor Day 2011" Facebook page, which keeps jobseekers updated about the May 1 job fair, had gained 1,938 "friends" as of 7:10 a.m. on Thursday. "As we expect thousands of jobseekers, graduates, and displaced overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to the designated venues across the country for the Job and Livelihood Fairs, we are continuously exerting all efforts and exhausting all means to provide a vast array of productive and matched job opportunities for everyone," DOLE Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said in a news release posted this week on the DOLE website. On the other hand, the DOLE's Labor Day account on micro-blogging site Twitter has so far gained 157 followers as of Thursday morning. The DOLE set up the Facebook and Twitter accounts in time for Labor Day. On Monday, it cited the case of Jezzel Ferrer, a computer science graduate who added the DOLE’s Labor Day account on her Facebook friends list to be updated on the Labor Day celebration. Ferrer is now working as a payroll clerk but hopes for a better job so she can help her family. "Jezzel, together with the thousands of jobseekers in the Labor Day Facebook account friends list, are fervently hopeful that May 1 will mark the end of their job hunt and the onset of a well-matched career," the DOLE said. This year's job fair is anchored on the theme, "Matuwid na Daan Tungo sa Kaunlaran Para sa Lahat (A Straight Path to Progress for All)." According to the DOLE, it and the private sector are offering more than 100,000 jobs for various skills at the nationwide job fairs on May 1. In Metro Manila, jobs available include those from the engineering industries, including branch/area managers, cashiers, sales staff and data encoders. The other jobs include: