Filipino nurses
seeking US jobs continue to decline
Press Release
October
16, 2010
MANILA – The number
of Filipino nurses aspiring to practice their profession in America
continued to drop year-on-year in the third quarter, the Trade Union
Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) reported over the weekend.
TUCP secretary-general
and former Senator Ernesto Herrera said only 2,227 Filipino nurses
took the US NCLEX for the first time from July to September, down 38
percent or 1,355 fewer compared to the 3,582 in the same three-month
period in 2009.
TUCP now expects some
5,000 fewer Filipino nurses taking the NCLEX the whole of this year,
according to Herrera, former chairman of the Senate committee on
labor, employment and human resources development.
Thus far, a total of
7,780 Filipino nurses took the NCLEX for the first time from January
to September, down 35 percent or 4,074 less versus the 11,854 in the
same nine-month period last year.
The NCLEX is the
licensure exam administered by the US National Council of State Boards
of Nursing Inc. The number of Filipino nurses taking the test for the
first time is a reliable indicator as to how many of them are trying
to enter the profession in the US, Herrera said.
A total of 15,382
Filipino nurses took the NCLEX for the first time in the whole of
2009, down 5,364 or 26 percent from 20,746 in 2008. All told, since
2005, some 90,000 Filipino nurses have taken the NCLEX for the first
time, that is, excluding repeaters.
Despite the decline in
the number of Filipinos nurses seeking US employment, Herrera said the
Philippines remains America's largest supplier of new foreign nurses,
after India,
South Korea, Canada and Nigeria.
Outside the US, the
Philippines is also the United Kingdom's third biggest supplier of new
foreign nurses, after India and Australia.
Herrera said many
Filipino nurses have temporarily sought employment in local
industries, mainly services, while waiting for more gainful work in
foreign labor markets.
"We now have thousands
of registered nurses engaged in services that have nothing to do with
their profession, working as contact center staff, baristas, cashiers,
even lotto terminal operators," Herrera said.
The Philippine Nurses
Association (PNA) earlier estimated at 200,000 the jobless nurses in
the country. "A total of 37,679 new practitioners passed the local
licensure exam in July. They are now competing for jobs with some
160,000 unemployed nurses," PNA said.
TUCP supports the
continued deployment of Filipino nurses to lucrative overseas labor
markets. "We obviously have a large surplus of nurses," Herrera said.
"We would prefer that
government encourage the deployment of nurses, and discourage the
placement of domestic helpers overseas," Herrera said.
"Filipino nurses
abroad are generally less vulnerable to employer abuse. Their skills
protect them. Their skills are not easy to replace, so employers are
careful not to mistreat and drive them away," he said.
"As to domestic
helpers, they are extremely susceptible to abuse because they live
with their employers, and their skills are easy to replace," Herrera
said.
"In Hong Kong for
instance, for every Filipino domestic helper, there could be dozens of
Indonesians, Thais and even local Chinese replacements waiting in
line. This is also true in the Middle East. Potential substitutes from
Sri Lanka and Indonesia abound," he added.