The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) has revised downward from 15 percent to a new range of 10 to 12 percent the projected average annual compounded growth rate (ACGR) in remittances sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) through 2010.

"We see still annual remittances growing, although not as briskly as we previously anticipated," said TUCP secretary-general and former Senator Ernesto Herrera.

In April 2006, TUCP predicted that remittances coursed through banks would grow at an average ACGR of 15 percent and hit $21.4 billion by 2010, or double the $10.68 billion posted in 2005.

Based on the revised 10 to 12 percent average ACGR, Herrera said the labor group now sees remittances hitting between $17.2 billion to P18.8 billion by 2010.

OFWs remitted a total of $10.94 billion in the eight months to August, up 17.2 percent or $1.6 billion versus the same period in 2007, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

They remitted $12.76 billion and $14.45 billion in 2006 and 2007, respectively.

"We do not see any year-on-year decline in remittances, only slower-than-expected growth," said Herrera, former chairman of the Senate labor, employment and human resources development committee.

He said the menacing global economic slump would not adversely affect in a big way the ability of highly skilled Filipinos workers to obtain gainful employment overseas.

"With respect to Filipino professionals such as nurses, sailors, pharmacists, physical therapists, teachers and engineers, they will still be able to get jobs overseas," Herrera said.

"The global healthcare industry, for instance, is relatively recession-proof. Ailing people in highly developed countries will continue to seek treatment, care and hospitalization regardless of their economic condition," he pointed out.

"However, unskilled Filipino laborers such as domestic staff might be negatively impacted by a deep global economic slowdown. Their services are considered somewhat dispensable. If a banker loses his job, the first to go will be his foreign domestic help," Herrera said.

Banks and insurers in the US, Europe and parts of Asia have been hit hard by the global financial meltdown. Due to staggering financial losses, some of them have collapsed, while others have been terminating tens of thousands of executives and employees.

Herrera said growth in the deployment of semi-skilled workers would also slow, largely on account of plunging oil, mineral and other commodity prices that would dampen new construction activities in the Middle East and mining-related projects elsewhere.

According to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, a total of 1,005,767 Filipino workers were deployed abroad in the nine months to September, up 26 percent or 207,036 compared to a year-ago.