US firms set to hire 75K Pinoy seafarers

United States companies are set to hire about 75,000 Filipino seafarers in the next three to four years, a seafaring industry executive disclosed on Tuesday (Washington DC time).

In a meeting with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. in Washington DC, John Padget, president and CEO of Carnival Corp., said his group of companies is set to hire Filipino seafarers.

Padget, who also represents Carnival Cruise Line, Holland American Airlines, and Seaborn, lauded Filipino workers for their hospitality and competitiveness in the global workforce.

“It doesn’t matter whether it’s the marine, deck, hospitality, restaurant… everything is based on the happiness, the smile, and the greatness of the Filipino employees,” he said.

Department of Migrant Workers Secretary Susan Ople, who was at the meeting, presented to the US firms “the interest of 200,000 Filipinos” who “adhere to fair and ethical standards and principles.”

Marcos, meanwhile, thanked the US employers for their continued confidence in Filipino professionals and skilled workers.

“When you say that the ladies and gentlemen that we have here today represent 200,000, you do not represent 200,000 employees, you represent 200,000 families and you represent 200,000 communities in the Philippines,” he told the employers.

The Filipinos represent the fourth largest immigrant group in the US after Mexicans, Indians, and Chinese, with more than four million Filipino immigrants, both temporary and permanent.

Through their remittances, Filipino workers contribute to the economic development of both the US and the Philippines with their