Sources: philstar.com, businessmirror.com.ph, bbc.co.uk, rappler.com, prcboardnews.com, tucp.org.ph, abs-cbnnews.com, ph.news.yahoo.com, gmanetwork.com, tesda.gov.ph

As the Philippines continues to open up its labor market to other countries, there appears to be a strong skills mismatch between current occupational talent vacancies and the available laborers. The following lists saturated jobs—those with too many applicants for the available positions—and the jobs with shortages.

Surpluses

1) Nursing

The nursing field now has an oversupply of applicants after years of popularity as a lucrative way out of poverty. In 2012, almost 80,000 graduates joined a field in which more than 200,000 nurses are already unemployed.

2) Information Technology

Not all of the 30,000 newly qualified computer engineers and technicians are absorbed by the worldwide demand every year. The focus has shifted to workers with liberal arts and customer interaction training.

3) Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM)

HRM graduates have been identified as one of the most “unemployable” by overseas recruiters. Majority of more than 120,000 graduates are deemed unqualified to work overseas due to the lack of skills and experience.

Shortages

1) Doctors

With the population set to reach 100 million in 2014 and the internationally suggested ratio at one doctor per 100 individuals, the Philippines now requires 1 million doctors. Only 70,000 are active out of 130,000 licensed doctors, putting the shortage at 930,000. This problem is worsened by the 2,000 doctors who migrate annually.

2) Mining Engineers

With only 100 new licensed professionals yearly, the need for 200 engineers annually for the Philippines is not met. Of the 4,000 registered mining engineers in the country since the 1950s, only 2,000 are active.

3) Geologists

Only 700 geologists are now active out of the 1,777 registered since 1965. Only 456 took the licensure examinations from 2002 to 2011, leaving half of the relevant jobs vacant.