Unemployed Nurses Can’t Find Jobs Overseas
The number of Filipino nurses who sought employment in the United States fell by 42 percent last year — from 9,789 in 2010 to only 5,630 in 2011. The number sits at about 1/4 of the figure in 2007 of Filipino nurses who sought US jobs.
21,499 examinees took the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) at the height of the nursing boom in 2007.
The US labor market for foreign nurses is getting overcrowded with fewer jobs available making the need for additional foreign markets to open to help nurses find work.
Partly due to funding cuts, and partly due to a glut of nurses, there is likely going to be over 300,000 unemployed nurses in the Philippines in two years. Couple that with hiring freezes in many foreign (US) hospitals, and you get the idea that trouble is on the horizon for this industry.