Team SparkUp
As our country’s medical frontliners continue the hard work of keeping COVID-19 at bay, private firms have another war of attrition on their hands: the care and keeping of our entrepreneur-driven economy.
A recent report from the Department of Labor and Employment noted that well over a million workers have been affected by the temporary closures around Metro Manila these past few weeks. A majority of these workers hailing from the manufacturing, hospitality, restaurant, and tourism industries.
While government stipends and support systems for shifting business models online have helped mitigate some losses, some downsizing and closures are inevitable–and with them, job losses.
On-demand service and self-styled super app MyKuya has taken on that challenge by offerings its platform as a means for the recently unemployed and in need of additional revenue to find work.
Over the month of March, MyKuya has created job opportunities for nearly 10,000 people. Their recent job fair alone saw about 1,000 job-seekers flocking to the platform in under 45 minutes.
Through MyKuya’s platform, workers (called Kuyas and Ates) can offer their services for a variety of tasks, ranging from buying groceries, to standing in line to pay bills for you, or delivering or picking something up on a motorbike. Prior to the quarantine period, cleaning services, carwashing and massage services were also in high demand. Currently, the company serves the entire Metro Manila, with some areas in the wider Mega Manila area also starting to receive some support.
But MyKuya isn’t limited to just helping individuals out either. Through its platform, businesses like manpower agencies and traditional service providers are also able to scale up their operations by sourcing talent in real-time.
With communities across the capital region under lockdown, MyKuya saw a significant spike in demand, translating into a massive amount of new job requests created on the platform over the past few weeks.
“Since the lockdown started, we’ve seen more people signing up to be users on the app,” said MyKuya founder Shahab Shabibi. “Naturally, this means we’ve also been able to hire more Kuyas and Ates to be a part of our team as well. It’s actually during the enhanced community quarantine that we’ve seen our numbers swell up more than ever before. During the enhanced community quarantine period alone, over 2,000 have already gotten their MyKuya accounts activated and nearly 7,000 onboarded.”