Prior to the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an estimated 2.2 million Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) according to the 2019 Survey on Overseas Filipinos (SOF) Report by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). OFWs with existing work employment contracts, referred to as Overseas Contract Workers (OCWs), comprised 96.8% or roughly 2.1 million, while only 3.2% or about 70,000 were those without contract. A slight decrease in the number of OFWs was noted in 2019 compared to 2017 and 2018 surveys.
