DEPLOYMENT of land-based overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) went down by 9 percent in 2017 to 1,992,746 workers from 2,112,331 in the previous year, according to records from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA)Statistics from the POEA Planning Branch showed that the decline was the first after 10 years of continuous increases.

In 2008, total deployment reached 1,236,613; 2009, 1,422,382; 2010, 1,476,826; 2011, 1,687,463;, 2012, 1,802,031; 2013, 1,826,804; 2014, 1,832,668; 2015, 1,841,205; and 2016, 2,112,331.