John Hay employment soars by 146 percent

By Dexter A. See

BAGUIO CITY– The full blast operation of the John Hay Special Economic Zone and influx of multinational business process outsourcing companies to the zone contributed in sudden surge of employment opportunities by at least 146 percent over the past three years,” Dr. Jaime Eloise M. Agbayani, president of the John Hay Management Committee, said here recently.

Agbayani said from around 1,400 jobs in July 2011, employment opportunities inside the zone grew to 3,470 by the

end of 2013.

She added for the first two quarters of 2014, an additional 560 jobs were generated by the opening of more shops in the multi-billion Ayala Techno hub and the expansion of operation of several business process outsourcing companies like Convergy’s, International Hotels Group among others.

“We want to make John Hay productive because of the expected influx of various investors wanting to operate their businesses inside the zone and avail of the benefits of the special economic zone,” Agbayani said.

The JHMC official disclosed out of the over 10,000 jobs within the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), the JHSEZ accounts for at least 60 percent of the jobs that were generated over the past several years.

JHMC is a subsidiary of the State-owned Bases Conversion and Development Authority which is tasked to oversee the operation, administration and management of the former American rest and recreation center in the city.

 Agbayani cited at least 92 percent of the workers inside the PEZA and JHSEZ come from the Baguio-La Trinidad-Itogon-Sablan-Tuba-Tublay (BLISTT) and the different parts of the Cordillera.

 “We want to leave a legacy in John Hay and we want to leave it in better state compared to when we took over the former American military base,” Agbayani said.

 She said expansion of MOOG Controls Corporation, an American semi-conductor company operating inside PEZA, which leased around 5 hectares of land from BCDA resulted in the generation of more than 1,500 jobs and another 1,000 indirect jobs from the BLISTT area.

The JHMC official said employment within the JHSEZ has constantly increased by a maximum of 30 percent annually over the past several years and job generation inside John Hay will be projected to grow at the same rate with the projected influx of investors locally and internationally.

In terms of business establishments, Agbayni said from 70 locators in 2011, it grew to 110 at the end of the second quarter this year.

By the end of this year, Agbayani said JHMC projects hitting the 5,000 mark in terms of jobs that will be created while locators are expected to increase to around 120.

She said numerous queries have been received by JHMC in terms of doing business inside the zone, thus, there will likely be a significant growth in the number of locators and the jobs to be created for local residents within the next two years where CJH has been projected as one of the catalyst of the city’s overall economic growth.