I came home for a visit to the Philippines and while here I thought to check job boards and classifieds to see what the local employment environment is like these days.

There's a lot of IT work, mostly in software and hardware programs, a ton of call centre jobs both in Metro Manila and Cebu despite the cutback in US client spending; there's also more and more translation and English language tutoring work available which was not quite as prevalent over five years ago.

One thing I've noticed and which I don't quite understand is an age and gender requirement stipulated in almost all job board placements I've seen online and in newspapers. Most of the jobs posted require applicants not to be over 21 - 25 years old and should either be male (or female) depending on the job type. Then there is the requisite college degree.

What happened to equal opportunity employment? Seems to me there needs to be some changes made in local employment if we are to get what's left of our experienced workforce in companies operating locally.

Turning 30 years old should not render a Filipino worker feeling useless or in a dead-end job just because they miss the age requirement. This is specially important to note when we have OFWs returning home from overseas, laden with experience and the capacity to take on good paying local jobs if they so want to stay in the Philippines.