The Outlet of Choice for Untapped Power: The State of Non-Traditional Work in the Philippines
The main problem here in the Philippines is not the lack of talent; rather, it is the abundance of it.
Every year, almost one million college graduates join the Filipino labor force, augmenting the already strained to capacity professional field. Also, even the basic jobs here in the Philippines require a college diploma. This leaves even the most talented and skilled with little prospects employment-wise.
That is, if they are dead-set on becoming full-time employees. Freelancing work opens a vast new world of numerous opportunities for everyone with the right skill, especially in the Philippines, where professional Filipinos face stress from work and from commuting daily.
The Situation
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the Filipino labor force stands at 42.1 million as of January 2017. The present unemployment rate is at 6.6%, and as stated earlier, a million college graduates join the already crowded field yearly.
In contrast, the opportunities available to freelancers are almost limitless. Thousands upon thousands of job listings are posted every day on online job portals like Upwork.com and Freelancer.com, showing no sign of abating even in the face of increased membership
In 2015, it is estimated that there are a million Filipino freelancers. This has obviously grown since Upwork.com puts the number of their registered Filipino users at 1.4 million and Freelancer.com puts the number of their Filipino users at 800,000.
Filipinos and Home-Based Work
The vastly higher rates ($10-$50/hour) aside, flexibility seems to be the number one reason why freelancers prefer being homebased.
Working at home frees the professional Filipino from dealing with the horrendous traffic of Metro Manila and other staples of office work such as dress codes, hierarchies, and dealing with officemates. A study has also found out that working from home increases the productivity of employees.
While Internet speed here is infamous for being the slowest in the region, urban areas are better connected and there are lots of co-working spaces available for freelancers. Furthermore, for parents, freelancing gives them the opportunity to spend more time with their growing children. This might even be the reason why there are more freelancer women than men.
Business Benefits of Hiring Filipino Freelancers
Unlike fulltime employees with a preset salary, freelancers only need to be paid for the specific task that they accomplished. This negates the need for “busy work” or tasks that managers give their subordinates just for the sake of having something to do.
Also, the Philippines possesses an educated workforce that is not only English-proficient, skilled, and hard-working, but also one that is among the lowest paid. The minimum wage is around $10/day (PHP 512) for Metro Manila workers, province-based ones earn a lot less.
The recent boom of business process outsourcing (BPO) companies here also made the workforce used to the processes and culture of Western companies. Businesses looking to employ freelancers here will not face difficulties communicating with them and training them virtually.