VietNamNet Bridge - Official reports showed there are more people with higher education are jobless than untrained workers.

The Q1 Institute of Labor and Social Affairs’ updates showed that 1.1 million workers were unemployed in the first three months of the year, an increase of 114,000 in comparison with the same period last year.

The bulletin caught the special attention from the public when noting that the highest unemployment rate was reported for a group of workers who have bachelor’s degrees or vocational school degrees. Meanwhile, untrained and unskilled workers had the lowest unemployment rate.

Nguyen Anh Duc, chair and CEO of Smartcom, noted that he can see big changes in Vietnam’s labor structure: many more people are skilled and have received training.

However, Duc thinks the unemployment rates are high in all economic sectors and business fields as the national economy has experienced a long and difficult period, and that both trained and unskilled workers are are jobless.

“This must not be understood that the higher education workers have, the fewer job opportunities they will have,” Duc said.

“A labor market with workers who are better trained must be a better labor market,” he commented, adding that Vietnamese should be proud of the high percentage of trained workers rather than blame higher education.

An official of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) noted that the higher unemployment rates in recent months are understandable.

The country has experienced tough days due to the prolonged economic recession and it has just begun recovering. 

Many businesses had to shut down or reduce production, especially in 2013 and 2014, and they had to lay off many workers.

The official noted that real estate, construction, finance & banking and services were the sectors which saw the sharpest labor cuts. 

These are the fields which have the highest demand for workers that have finished junior college or university.

A statistician said the GDP growth rate has been slightly more than 5 percent from 2011 to now, which is lower than the average GDP growth rate of 7 percent in the years prior to 2011.

Meanwhile, Vietnam had more junior college and university graduates from 2011 to 2015 than in any other period. 

“The higher unemployment rate of trained workers was foreseeable,” he said.

A high school teacher in Hanoi said: “Trained workers tend to be choosier when looking for jobs. Meanwhile, untrained workers are not.”

Dan Viet