VietNamNet Bridge – No once could imagine that a reputable lawyer would become a babysitter one day, and a forwarder would become a taxi motorbike driver overnight.

A lot of businesses have got bankrupted in the economic difficulties, turning their staffs unemployed. A lot of office workers have to take other temporary jobs to earn their living.

Lawyer became babysitter

Ha, who lives in Nha village in Long Bien district of Hanoi, is well-known by local people. The street-wise man in suit is about 40 years old. In the minds of many people in Nha village, he is a lawyer of the Hanoi Bar Association, who has a high income of 10 million dong a month.

However, in fact, Ha is redundant. His job now is taking care of the four year old son at home, while waiting for new job opportunity.

Ha said that he was busiest in mid-year, and he nearly had nothing to do at year end. “After a long time of working, I got so tired that I decided to stay off from work. I have been staying at home for the last four months,” Ha said.

“Last month I took a part time job at a judicial office, specializing in managing risks for construction companies. I only had to go to the office once a week and earned 2 million dong a month. However, I have lost the job in a layoff campaign,” he continued.

When asked about the plans for the future, Ha said all the family members now live on the modest income of his wife and the savings.

“I know we would not live in the capital city for a long more time with the low income. I would have to look for a job next month. I would take any job which can bring money. When everything turns to the normal track, I would become a lawyer again,” Ha said.

Forwarder works as taxi motorbike driver

Duong, who is from Thai Binh province, related that he was once a worker of the HCM City-based Le Hoang express forwarding Company.

“When I was an official worker of the company, I could earn 2.5-4 million dong a month, depending on the volume of works. However, as the business turned bad, the company did not pay fixed monthly salaries for its workers,” he said.

Instead of paying monthly salaries, the company only paid for every work Duong took. As a result, Duong’s income became unstable, which was not enough to cover his basic needs and support the wife and kid.

In order to exist in the capital city, where everything is getting more and more expensive, Duong has been taking a lot of jobs to earn money.

“I am working as a taxi motorbike driver, always ready to serve people at any times, in daytime or at night. I am also working as a merchant, or vendor. I will take every possible work which can bring money,” Duong said.

Duong and his wife plan to trade summer clothes. However, the plan has been delayed until they can arrange capital. For the time being, Duong and his family have to get by on the modest money he can earn, and the money which was the gifts for their wedding.

Unemployed became self-employed

Once following the university education, Hung, 37, could not imagine before that he would become a barber shop assistant one day.

Refused by employers many times, Hung decided to work as an assistant for the barber shop owned by his wife. Of course, only his wife experienced training courses on the career, while Hung is just an amateur. However, there are still a lot of works Hung can take, including washing clients’ hairs.

Besides, Hung also can earn money as a sorcerer. Hung can earn 500,000 dong, or 2 million dong from every trip to pagodas, where he assisted people to make ceremonial offerings. On the other days, Hung helps people fix electronics problems to earn some money.

Source: VTC