VietNam’s total number of workers will increase by 10.4 million by 2020, which means there will be an average of 800,000 workers being added to the market every year.
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Young people seek employment opportunities at a career fair in HCM City. The total number of labourers in Viet Nam is estimated to increase by 10.4 million by 2020. |
The report also said Viet Nam was still very much a rural country and deficient in productive employment.
Though the proportion of agricultural labour fell by 13 per cent between 1997 and 2007 to 52 per cent of the country’s total employment, agriculture remains the most important economic sector, according to the report.
The rural nature of the country and the still heavy dependence upon agriculture means that a very large proportion of total employment is in own-account and unpaid family work categories, which accounted for three-fourths of total employment in 2007.
The lack of productive employment is reflected in the large numbers of manual employees, which totalled 28.1 million persons in 2007, or 62 percent of total employment.
This shows a “very high degree of total employment that is vulnerable”, the report added.
The report, however, acknowledged encouraging trends in the nation’s efforts to develop its human resources and labour market. The unemployment rate was kept stable over the last decade and there has been an increase in the number of newly-employed workers and those moving to better-paying jobs.
The “Vietnam Employment Trends” report was prepared by MoLISA with technical support from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) through the Labour Market Project, funded by the European Union.
“The labour market’s transition and facing of important challenges and opportunities was hailed as being ‘very timely’ as Viet Nam approaches middle income status relative to other global economies, said Willy Vandenberghe, Head of Co-operation at the EU Delegation to Viet Nam.
The Vietnamese Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs expressed her appreciation for the first ever report on the labour market, “Reliable and meaningful statistics and analysis of the labour market are vital to the government to review and renew existing labour market policies and programmes, to promote the decent work agenda and overcome deficits and to set targets and measure progress,” she said.
VietNamNet/VNS
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