MANILA, Philippines -- There will be no mass layoffs of Filipino workers around the world despite the global financial crisis, Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said Monday.

The meltdown, Roque said, "would not hit us like a tidal wave, not suddenly."

Roque denied reports quoting him as saying that 50,000 jobs in the United States would be lost due to the credit crunch there.

He pointed out that most of the OFWs in the US were nurses, whose employers -- hospitals -- were unlikely to close shop.

"Walang effect sa US [There will be no effect on OFW deployment to the US]. There is possible effect in the local export industry," he said, affirming the assessment of lawyer Vicente Leogardo of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines that the electronics and semiconductors industry will be most affected by the financial meltdown in the US.

"With the bailout, we might not be hit," he said, referring to the $700 billion package approved by the US Congress.

The labor chief admitted that while there has been a drop in the deployment of nurses to the US last year, it had nothing to do with the crisis.

The number of nurses who wish to go to the US is limited by the number of visas allocated for a particular country. The Philippines has long used up its annual quota.

Asked about a possible drop in remittances from OFWs, Roque said this would also be unlikely. He explained that while the biggest bulk of remittances was registered from the US, they were actually from the Middle East.

He said the remittances from Saudi Arabia were coursed through banks in the US.

Roque said the department was preparing for contingency measures in case of layoffs.

"We are planning in case we get hit, if we get hit," he said.

Roque’s undersecretary, Lourdes Trasmonte, said the thrust would be to explore other labor markets like Australia, New Zealand, and Canada -- all of which have sought Philippine government assistance in facilitating the hiring of OFWs.

"We are also intensifying training of skills so that returning OFWs will have better chances of working abroad," Trasmonte said.

Worldwide, the Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia, has the biggest number of OFWs at 2.18 million. Of the number, 2 million are temporary residents, only 4,000 are permanent and 120,000 irregular.

The US, according to government records, has 2.8 million Filipinos, mostly permanent residents. Of the 2.8 million Filipinos, 2.5 are permanent residents, 130,000 temporary, and 156,000 irregular.