MANILA: Filipino virtual assistants are emerging as a new sector in overseas work, with more than 1 million believed to be serving foreign clients online, from their homes in the Philippines.
The Philippine Department of Labor and Employment defines a virtual assistant as “a self-employed worker who specializes in offering administrative services to clients from a remote location, usually a home office,” and the typical tasks as “scheduling appointments, making phone calls, making travel arrangements, and managing email accounts.”
The trend has been fueled by the practice of remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic. While in many other Asian countries, people started to return to the office, Filipinos, due to their English skills started to find employers abroad.
In its 2023 advisory, the DoLE estimated that 1 out of 8 million virtual assistants on the global freelancing platform Upwork were from the Philippines. By 2025, that number could reach 1.5 million, according to HireTalent.ph — a service launched in response to the sector’s boom.
“Post-COVID things went up, because a lot of companies shifted online and wanted to build a remote-first workforce. The Philippines was a great place because of affordability, time zone ... great English skills, cultural adaptability with Western standards,” Justin Gluska, HireTalent.ph CEO and founder, told Arab News.
