The number of registered overseas Filipino workers (OFW) has dropped by nearly a fifth to 1.8 million in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that the ranks of OFWs dropped by 18.6% to 1.77 million in 2020 from 2.18 million in 2019.

Earlier in 2020, there were around 1.71 million overseas contract workers (OCWs), accounting for 96% of the total and this was a 19% drop from the 2.11 million OCWs in 2019.

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Filipinos who worked abroad without working visa or work permits such as tourist, visitor, student, medical, and other types of non-immigrant visas but were presently employed and working full time in other countries accounted for 3.6% of the total numbers and the population of these workers slipped by 7.4% to 63,810 in 2020 from 68,940 in 2019.

In the pandemic as many countries implemented strict lockdowns and closed their borders in an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19 in 2020, many businesses shut down and workers lost their jobs.