Olongapo City remains to be the top workforce provider for Subic Bay Freeport as the year 2009 closes in just a few days.
Among the 86,631 workers in the Subic Bay Freeport today, fully 40 percent come from Olongapo City, which has traditionally contributed the most number of workers since 1992. Olongapo’s workers in the free port now number 34,807.
Next to Olongapo, the province of Zambales provided the biggest number at 19,194, or 22.16 percent; Bataan, with a total of 10,994 or 12.69 percent.
The rest are from the National Capital Region, which has a total of 4,556 migrant workers in Subic, or 5.26 percent of the total; Pampanga, with 2,897 or 3.34 percent; and Tarlac, with 1,801 or 2.08 percent.
The bulk of the workforce according to Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Administrator Armand Arreza came from the maritime and electronic firms in Subic.
“This has been the case since Korean shipbuilder Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction Corp. located in Subic in 2006,” Arreza noted. “While the services sector still hired most of Subic’s workers, those in the shipbuilding and manufacturing industries usually landed in the top 10 biggest individual employers.”
“These two industries are really catching up fast in terms of hiring, but the bulk of total Subic’s workforce still depended on companies that provide services,” Arreza added.
Arreza explained that seven of Subic’s top 10 biggest employers are in the maritime business, while the three others that complete the list are from the electronics manufacturing business.
According to SBMA data, the biggest employer in Subic as of October 2009 is Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction Corp., which has a total of 3,118 employees. Hanjin operates a $1.7-billion shipyard at Subic’s Redondo Peninsula and builds some of the biggest vessels in the world today.
Following Hanjin in the second and third slots are two Japanese manufacturers — computer parts-maker Nidec Subic Phils. Corp., which employs 2,361 workers; and electronics motor-producer Sanyo Denki, which has hired a total of 2,218.
The fourth and fifth biggest employers are Korean companies that provide support services to Hanjin. These are Subic Shipbuilder Corp., with a total of 1,862 employees; and Greenbeach Powertech, Inc., with a total of 1,693 workers.
In sixth place is Taiwanese computer-maker Wistron Infocomm Phils., which has a total of 1,699 employees. Wistron used to be Subic’s biggest employer prior to the establishment here of Hanjin in 2006.
The rest of the companies in the top 10 employers list are all Hanjin subcontractors: Subickor Corp., which has a total of 1,662 workers; Metrobay Corporation, with 1,514; Redondo Baytech Corp., with 1,426; and Kalayaan I-Tech Corp., which has a total of 1,361 employees.
With a total manpower complement of 15,796, the top 10 employers, however, delivered only 18.51 percent of Subic’s current employment record of 86,631.
