MANILA, Philippines—The global economic slowdown is snatching away not only jobs from Filipino construction workers abroad, but also the remittances for their families back home, international labor groups warned Monday.

The male-dominated construction industry in the United States, where many Filipino laborers work, is badly hit and as the number of available jobs shrink, the number of undocumented Filipinos abroad could rise, said Ambet Yuson, regional representative of the Building and Wood Workers’ International.

“The bigger problem is since they will not have jobs here in the Philippines, those who will lose their jobs would rather stay there undocumented instead of going home,” Yuson added.

Families of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) should also tighten belts this holiday season as remittances are also expected to shrink by half, he added.

“We have talked to some workers and they told us that they would only send half of their salaries to their families. Prices of commodities in the US also went up,” Yuson said.

Yuson’s group has also monitored some OFWs who had already gone home after losing their jobs.

“Their families will have a sad Christmas, with probably less Christmas lights,” he said.

Filipino domestic helpers in Singapore earlier expressed fears of a layoff as their Singaporean employers absorb the shock of the US economic crisis.

Nurses also vulnerable

Filipino nurses in America are affected too, according to Public Service International vice president Annie Geron.

There are many Filipino health care workers in the United States. In New Jersey for instance, 60 percent of health care workers are Filipinos, Geron said.

“Those in the health sector are very vulnerable now. If they lose their present jobs, competition for the remaining jobs is tighter and Americans will be prioritized,” Geron added.

Those who will choose to stay as undocumented migrants instead of going home will also be vulnerable to exploitation, Geron warned.

There are few countries in the world that don’t have Filipino workers. Even in tiny Iceland, one of the countries hardest hit by the financial crisis, there were 1,411 at last count.

At any given time, about 10 percent of the Philippines’ 90 million population is hard at work—outside the country.

For years, this vast army of OFWs has managed to keep the Philippine economy afloat with their remittances but all that could change as the global financial crisis starts to bite.

Last year, OFWs sent home $14.4 billion, equivalent to 10 percent of the Philippine gross domestic product. The government had hoped that figure would exceed $15 billion this year.

But if the financial crisis continues to deepen, as many economists believe will happen, the impact on the Philippines could be severe.

“Overseas employment has been the Philippines’ escape valve for years,” Ben Diokno, an economist and former budget secretary, told Agence France-Presse.

Escape valve to narrow

“I expect that valve will start to narrow sharply as a result of the global economic recession,” Diokno said.

He warned: “Just imagine if a significant number of these workers were to come home,” where a third of the labor force is out of a job or underemployed.

The Department of Labor and Employment has already estimated that some 50,000 Filipinos could lose their jobs in the United States alone, mostly in the financial sector.

More than two million Filipinos live and work in the United States and account for some 30 percent of remittances.

“We are entering uncharted territory,” said Romeo Bernardo, an economist and former finance undersecretary.

“It is a question really of waiting to see which economies are hardest hit and where,” he said.

Last year, according to government data, Filipinos could be found working in 202 countries around the world.

Filipinos man a third of the world’s merchant shipping, drive trucks in war-torn Iraq and work on construction sites in the Gulf and Middle East.

Hospitals in Australia, Canada and the United States employ thousands of Filipino nurses and doctors. More than one million Filipinos live and work in Saudi Arabia alone, from doctors and engineers to laborers.

About 40,000 Filipino nurses work in Britain’s National Health Service, half of whom are already permanent residents or British citizens, according to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration.

In Hong Kong and Singapore they look after the homes and children of local residents while in Macau they can be found dealing cards in the casinos.

The gaming boom there has attracted more than 23,000 Filipinos, forcing the Philippine government to open a consulate in the former Portuguese colony.

Hotels throughout Asia employ Filipinos at all levels from reception to management and even outgoing US President George W. Bush employs a Filipino cook in the White House.

Rene Ofreneo, former dean of the University of the Philippines School of Labor and Industrial Relations, said the financial crisis would hit OFWs the hardest and may cause remittances to fall.

He told a conference in Manila recently that the “crisis will spare no market where OFWs are usually deployed” and will, in time, impact on remittances.

Consumption to slow down

“A decline in remittances will cause consumption spending to slow. Restaurants will be hit, and consumer goods,” Ofreneo said.

Government data show that more than 30 percent of Filipino overseas workers are laborers and unskilled workers.

“The government should be prepared to face the real risk that OFW remittances may shrink as the recession in the US, and the rest of the developed world, deepens,” Diokno said.

The Philippine government is starting to draw up contingency plans with the possibility of large numbers of Filipino overseas workers losing their jobs, but has yet to announce any details.

Labor Secretary Marianito Roque earlier said the impact would be “minimal.”

Yuson said that the government should plan how to accommodate the overseas workers who would go home. “We cannot forever rely on migration for development,” he said.

He said an earlier announcement that 10,000 jobs would be available for Filipinos in Canada was not that rosy anymore, as the financial crisis could slow down recruitment. The jobs of those who have already flown there are also at risk. With a report from Agence France-Presse