Every morning, Greggy Venzuela comes to a tree-shaded area at the junctions of TM Kalaw and Maria Orosa streets in Manila to look for sailors among the job-seeking mariners who gather there and tries to persuade them to work on his company’s clients’ ships.

Mr Venzuela works for Fleet Management, a supplier of staff to shipowners. He faces ever more intense competition from rivals that have set up stalls in the area, a once-informal jobs market that has gradually grown formal.