In the four months leading up to May, foreign countries have been increasing the number of Vietnamese guest workers opening the door to broader job opportunities, according to the Overseas Labour Management Department.

The latest figures from the department show that for the January-April period, the number of workers jumped 4% on-year to almost 36,000 workers with Taiwan (China) employing the most followed by Japan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Korea (RoK).

“Taiwan continues to be the main overseas market for guest workers thanks to its businesses providing good pay and working conditions buttressed by the government’s emphasis on protecting worker rights,” said Tong Hai Nam, deputy head of the department.

“In particular, Taiwan has made remarkable changes in its guest worker programs and has increased the worker quotas significantly, which has opened up great employment opportunities” Nam said.

In addition, Nam said that other markets like Japan, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines also have also increased their limits due to shortages of domestic workers in a wide variety of industries.

Most notably, Japan has high recruitment needs and many companies have initiated three year apprentice programs to attract highly-skilled workers in fields such as engineering, medicine and nursing.

Earlier on April 10, Vietnam and the RoK signed a memorandum of understanding allowing for an additional 2,900 worker increase under the Employment Permit System (EPS) program for manufacturing, construction and agriculture positions.

VOV