VietNamNet Bridge – Unskilled laborers have become unemployed in the enterprises’ campaign to lay off workers to cut down expenses. Meanwhile, trained workers are still lacking.

Doan Kim Chi, a worker of a garment company in Binh Chanh district in HCM City, when returning to the home village on Tet holiday, complained to her relatives that her income had decreased sharply because of few orders. Chi feared that she would have to leave the job when the enterprise lays off workers. If so, she would have to return to the countryside.

In the last two years, Chi earned enough money to feed herself and remit home to the husband and children. However, her income has dropped dramatically since the beginning of the year since the company could not obtain orders from partners.

“The company recently has been slow in paying salaries. Meanwhile, everything is expensive in such a big city like HCM City. I have never seen such big difficulties,” she said.

Nguyen Kim HIen, a worker of a footwear company in Thu Duc district in HCM City, has decided to leave the company for her home village in Tien Giang province.

“Previously, we tried to take extra jobs to earn more money. But now we do not have jobs to do,” Hien said about her circumstance.

She now earns 2 million dong a month only and she has to spend most of the money on room rent, electricity and water bills. Therefore, Hien decided to return to the countryside, where she can earn no more than 2 million dong a month, but the goods prices are lower.

Businesses cut down the labor force

In the economic crisis, a lot of enterprises have to scale down the production, especially the ones in the manufacturing sector.

The Phu Long Tan wooden furniture enterprise in Binh Duong province now has 10 workers only, while it once had 100 workers previously. Nguyen Quang, the company’s director, complained that the company cannot retain workers because of the sharp fall of the number of export contracts.

“Besides, we have to compete fiercely with each other by cutting down expenses. Therefore, we have no other choice than laying off workers, though we know we would find it difficult to recruit workers later, when the economy gets better and we need more workers,” Quang said.

Meanwhile, the HCM City-based Thanh Cong Textile and Garment Company has had 650 laborers quit their jobs over the last six months. Onamba in Binh Duong province has seen 200 out of the 700 workers stopped working.

Nguyen Hoang Anh, a senior executive of Onamba, said the workers quitted their jobs because they plan to come back to the home village, because their income in the countryside is nearly the same, while the living cost there is lower.

According to the HCM City Job Center, the demand for workers was lower by 15.23 percent in the first six months of the year in comparison with the same period of the last year. The majority of the laid-off workers are unskilled laborers.

However, the problem lies in the fact that university and junior college graduates still cannot find jobs, while graduates from vocational schools can easily look for jobs, but the number of the graduates remains modest.

Also according to the center, HCM City would need 135,000 workers in the last six months of 2012, including 30,000 workers for industrial zones and export processing zones.

Source: NLD