New Delhi – Burma's Ministry of Labor has set a new target for overseas employment agencies, looking for each registered agency to place 300 Burmese workers abroad per year, according to placement agencies.

While the Ministry earlier set the target at just 100 positions for each agency, the new instruction, given in April, is causing panic among overseas placement agencies, as the Ministry also warned that failing to reach the new target could result in a delay or the inability to renew their company license.

"If we are short of just a few placements to meet the target, there should not be much problem, but if we are far short of the target our license could be revoked," commented an official at a Rangoon-based overseas employment agency.

While there are at least 200 registered overseas job placement agencies, the number of people seeking overseas jobs through such agencies is on the rise, as there are fewer and fewer job opportunities in the domestic labor market.

An agency on Rangoon's Shwe Bon Tha Street said that it is difficult to meet the target set by the government, since finding jobs overseas for 300 people is not easy and because they have to compete with unregistered brokers and agencies.

"It's very difficult to meet the target of 300 jobs per year. There are many others working in this business. It's hard to compete with unregistered brokers and agencies. They have no overhead expenses such as staff salary, internet usage, office rent, taxes and rates paid to the government like we do. We have to spend more than these unregistered brokers," said an official from a registered placement agency.

Overseas job placement agencies typically demand a down payment from clients, but now they are asking for only half as much in advance as they used to for their services.

Of the many countries that Burmese find themselves working in, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore are the most common destinations, according to job placement agencies.