Lifting the lid on employment prospects

Deputy head of Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA)’s Employment Department Nguyen Thi Hai Van. (photo:VGP)

The MoLISA is proposing higher pension age to avert the collapse of the social insurance fund. Will this influence new job creation measures?

Increasing the pension age will not largely affect new job creation since new jobs mainly relate to those who just step into the working age or finish study. The pressure from new job creation is mainly driven by the needs to expand production and business or to establish new businesses alongside economic development.

However, issues like how to increase pension age and at what time are being put for general comment to find the best solution.

Economists forecast 2013 will continue to be a challenging. How will this affect the labour market?

The imbalance between the demand and the supply may still occur in the labour market, but at lower degrees than in the previous year. Maybe, that is because labourers’ skills have yet to meet employers’ demands.

However, there are some positive signs for 2013, shown in relatively high rates of labourers returning to work after long Lunar New Year holidays (around 90 per cent) or the number of labourers registered for unemployment allowances in the first two months of 2013 just equal to 56 per cent compared to a year earlier.

The job market will be vibrant in 2013. Some southern locations like Dong Nai, Binh Duong and Ho Chi Minh City have huge demand for workers.

What sectors will be the most easy to find jobs in 2013?

Surveys of the labour market in 2013 reflect that this year the following sectors will have enormous opportunities for job seekers as wood processing, construction, dress-making, food processing, retail, information technology, electronic and electrical.

Firms also have big demands for engineers in construction, mechanical and manufacturing.
In paradox, however, firms struggle to find suitable manpower since training has yet to match social requirements. For instance, training centres often lack machinery and equipment for practicing, what several occupations require like assembly.

This means there is a large gap between the supply and the demand in the labour market. What is the cause?

For their part, many labourers  report limited skills, making them hard to find decent jobs at foreign invested businesses or at firms willingly pay high. Besides, some labourers could not afford continuous working hours which make them tired as they were familiar with faring by their own in agricultural production.

From the part of businesses, through checks we found that a number of firms posted recruitment needs five to 10-fold bigger than actual demands to make up for the shortfall left by job hoppers.
Some businesses had constantly recruited and laid off workers to evade paying social insurance fees. Some others failed to satisfy labourers’ basic needs for accommodation or payment, making the labourers not loyal to the companies.

The employment service centres whose core function is to act as a bridge between the labourers and firms are working with low efficiency. Some could only invite small businesses with demands for unskilled workers while skilled ones could not find job at  these centres, making them less charming to job seekers.