31/10/2026
IN THE PHILIPPINES, THERE ARE MORE DEGREE-HOLDING IDLERS THAN JOBS THAT REQUIRE A DEGREE
Real talk
You finished a 4-year college course. Your mother spent P300k.
You did a thesis, stayed up late, did an OJT (On-the-Job Training), took exams.
When you graduated, they told you:
"With 2 years experience"
"Can start ASAP, P15k salary"
"Fresh grad? OJT first, unpaid"
Because in the Philippines, your degree isn't a ticket to a good job.
It's just a ticket to stand in a longer line.
Look at it:
Education grad selling in the wet market.
Engineering grad riding for Grab.
IT grad just data-encoding at a call center, unrelated to their course.
Nursing grad working in a coffee shop, because they can't find a hospital with decent pay.
Meanwhile, in other countries
High school grads already have jobs at a factory, earning P30k.
We pump out thousands of college grads every year, but we don't build thousands of factories, hospitals, or tech companies to hire them.
So what happens?
Export again. Our nurse gets a job with a degree in the UK. Here, unemployed.
Our teacher gets a job with a degree in the US. Here, contractual.
Filipinos aren't lacking in intelligence. They aren't lacking in degrees.
We lack jobs that respect the degree you worked hard for.
So if you are a degree holder and you're idle right now, you are not stupid.
You're just in a country that is faster at producing graduates than it is at creating jobs for those graduates.