VietNamNet Bridge – According to a report from the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs in early September, the unemployment rate of Vietnam is 1.84%. Former chair of the National Assembly’s Committee for Social Affairs – Mrs. Nguyen Thi Hoai Thu – said that this figure is “funny optimism”.

Thousands of people queued to apply for a recruitment exams to the Hanoi Taxation Office in late August.

She said: “I don’t know how they calculated the figure but looking at real life, we can see so many people unemployed. We see many people on the street, at tea shops during work hours. If they have jobs, they must be at offices or factories.”

Thu also said that even developed countries “dream” of having an unemployment rate of 1.84%. “It is very difficult to get a job at state agencies at present because these bodies are trying to cut staff. It is also difficult to seek a job at businesses because they are in the difficult time, while high-tech zones are not labor-intensive units,” she said.

“That low unemployment rate is unscientific and very unrealistic,” Thu said.

The unemployment rate reflects the health of the economy so if the figure is incorrect, it will impact macroeconomic policies, she said.

The Ministry of Labor said the figure was estimated by the Statistical Office but Thu did not agree with this explanation. She said the Ministry of Labor is responsible to manage labor-related issues, and it is unacceptable if it does not have its own research and statistics and instead uses statistics and data from other agencies to do its tasks.

The Ministry has a system from the central to grassroots levels, and many research institutes.

According to the updated bulletin on the labor market issued by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs on September 3, the unemployment rate was only 1.84% in the third quarter, the lowest in a year.

Compared with the first quarter of 2014, the group of untrained unemployed workers fell by 108,000; the group of unemployed people with college degrees fell by 17,100; and the group of unemployed people with university degrees or higher decreased by 15,400.

VNE