Sustainable supply of workers
With white-collar collar jobs scarcer in Mindanao than in Luzon, incoming BPO firms face less competition in hiring the “best and the brightest” in the region, where a quarter of the national population resides.
Davao’s workforce is estimated to be twice that of Cebu, seven times that of Angeles/Clark, and six times that of Baguio, according to the XMG study. Another major advantage cited is Davao’s large annual yield of information technology- and BPO-qualified graduates; 40 percent higher than that of Baguio.
These statistics do not include the potential workforce supply from nearby cities and provinces. One of Mindanao’s competitive advantages is that most of its provinces form a single land mass, in contrast to the rest of the archipelago. Improved road infrastructure has resulted in increasingly shorter commutes into cities by workers from other municipalities.
Mindanao’s tertiary-level academic institutions—which are at par with the rest of the country—are concentrated in urban centers which are likely BPO locations. Zamboanga City, the sixth most populous city (approx.750,000) in the Philippines, has over 60 universities and colleges.
The cities of Iligan and Marawi, just half an hour apart, have a combined student population of 25,000 in their Mindanao State University (MSU) campuses alone.
BPO wage rates are competitive in Mindanao, where BPO agents earn PhP6,500 -PhP10,000 a month, reflecting the lower cost of living. This is significantly less than the PhP9,000-PhP18,000 earned by agents in Metro Manila.
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