UNDERUTILIZED SPECIALIZATION

UNEDITED EDITORIAL ARTICLE
By Julia Nina Somera Moncada
IV–Madame Marie Curie


Unemployment is a very serious problem in our country. It greatly affects the economy of our country. Unemployment isn’t the only economic problem in our country. Underemployment is also a very serious problem that our country faces. Underemployment happens when a person is employed for a job that is below his full working potential or not related to his specialization. For example, a chemical engineering graduate working as a mere secretary for a public office. Another example, are those doctors with medical licenses that return to college to finish nursing so that they can work in other countries. These are a huge waste of talents and brains. These specialists that were supposed to have important jobs are underutilized and used for fairly simple jobs because of poverty. The result, the positions left open are occupied by average people, thus, giving average or even mediocre results.

To get better and higher paying jobs that are well in accordance with their specialization, a lot our country’s great minds go to other countries to look for jobs. As a result, our country experiences what we call a “brain drain.”

The best solution for this problem is to open more job vacancies. But only the opposite is happening. Last year, the only factory owned by Ajinomoto Inc. was shut down, leaving hundreds of workers jobless. Fortunately, the company gave the workers a higher retirement pay than required. But not all companies are as generous as they were. If another factory were to close, it would not be like that.

Job fairs are really helpful in giving people jobs but they are not even enough to accommodate all the young new graduates. That leaves the older unemployed people in a very bad situation.

The best solution for now is to have more investors. With more investors, more businesses, more companies, there would be more jobs. That would make the unemployment rate decrease. But there is still the issue of underemployment. Unless the government raises the pay of the high level jobs, which is highly unlikely, underemployment would still be a problem.

Perhaps in the near future, the Filipino people would have full employment and would no longer need to go away from their families to work in other countries.