The government of Taiwan ordered freeze-hiring of Filipino workers causing the deployment of newly-hired Filipino workers in Taiwan to be halted. Taiwan-based companies are also prohibited from renewing the contracts of their Filipino employees.

Reports from the Manila Economic Cooperation Office (Meco) said that more or less 10,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Taiwan have been sent home since May of this year. The Labor Department though expressed doubt that this report may not be accurate and is currently in the process of verifying it.

Secretary Baldoz said, "The report came from a member of Congress who bared it in a press conference. We are still verifying the report. Initially, it appears that the figure of 10,000 is grossly off the mark. POEA historical records show that the deployment to Taiwan is only on the average of 2,000 to 2,500 a month."

The DOLE chief also assured OFWs that are affected by the ban in Taiwan that many job and livelihood opportunities exist elsewhere. They are advised to consider local job openings. She said that the official online jobsite of their agency, PhilJobNet currently has 129,180 available job vacancies in the Philippines.

Most of the job openings are for plant and machine operators and assemblers with13,544 vacancies. There are 6040 positions for factory workers (while 2,956 jobs are for engineers and technicians.

Baldoz added, "They may also explore jobs in the business process outsourcing sector, such as call center agents, technical support staff, and customer service assistants. Those who have low skills may also apply for skills training/upgrading in TESDA-accredited training providers."

For those who still want to work abroad, jobs for production workers and those offering personal services are available in Qatar, Israel, Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, Oman, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Those who would rather start a business are urged to get assistance from the National Reintegration Program for OFWs, which offers training and grant loans from P300,000 up to P2 million.