Public Employment Service Office-Bayambang, in cooperation with the Department of Labor and Employment, held the first major job fair for 2017 last April 28 at the newly refurbished Municipal Events Center, in time for Labor Day over the long weekend.

Taking advantage of the air-conditioned venue were 19 companies offering local and foreign jobs and hundreds of fresh graduates looking for work as well as older workers trying to explore the market for a second career.

In the brief opening program, Councilor Martin Terrado welcomed the participating companies and the job applicants in behalf of the Sangguniang Bayan, together with new appointee Dr. Joel T. Cayabyab, Labor and Employment Officer IV and PESO Manager of the newly created Municipal Employment Service Office, and of course the hardworking team of Gerenerio Q. Rosales, PESO Bayambang’s Officer-Designate, and staff members Dennis Flores and Mark Flores.

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Dennis Soriano of DOLE’s Central Pangasinan Field Office was also present to serve in monitoring and coaching capacities together with two other DOLE representatives.

Speaking on behalf of the Mayor Cezar T. Quiambao was Municipal Administrator Atty. Rodelyn Rajini Sagarino, who noted how the job fair was being held with these hard realities in mind: a) Bayambang is reportedly number one in unemployment in Pangasinan, b) 7 out of 10 high school graduates of the town do not reach college, and c) Bayambang has thankfully just been removed from the child malnourishment list, but it has been included in the infamous poverty-indicator list for several years prior to this.

Because of these realities, “job fairs like this have MCTQ’s 101% support,” said Sagarino. “Our target is to hold regular job fairs.”

After the data from the job fair had been collated, PESO Bayambang released the following figures:

• Number of participating companies: 19 (15 local and 4 overseas)
• Number of job vacancies announced by participating companies: overseas: 1,457; local: 3,810
• Number of registered applicants: 246 (Note: Some applicants were latecomers and failed to register.)
• Number of applicants hired on the spot: 76