VietNamNet Bridge – Up to 225,000 bachelor’s and master’s degree holders in Vietnam are jobless, while graduates from vocational schools can easily find a job.

After more than one year of graduation, Nguyen Phuong Linh, a bachelor of the National Economics University, who majored in International Business, has yet to find a job appropriate to her expertise.

Linh said she had sent her CVs to many companies in various areas but she had not received any replies.

Linh has had to do many jobs to survive. The income of a receptionist, a waitress and a marketing employee is only VND3.5 to VND4 million ($150-$200) a month so Linh had to spend economically to cover expenses for accommodation, food and others.

"Seasonal jobs are unstable, the income is up and down and there is no social insurance. My income is even less than my friends who were trained as garment workers in my hometown. Thinking about applying for jobs, I’m so frustrated!" Linh said.

Linh is one of more than 1.1 million people in the working age who are unemployed, according to statistics by the end of the third quarter 2015.

Notably, the group of bachelor’s and postgraduate degrees holders was the highest, accounting for 20%, totalling more than 225,000 people. It is predicted that this number will increase in the future.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate of the group of people with vocational training degrees tends to sharply decline. This shows a worsening gap between demand and supply of the labor market.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan Huong, Director of the Institute of Labour Science and Social Affairs, said Vietnamese people were still keen on degrees. Most people choose to study "luxury" subjects at colleges and universities instead of vocational schools. The study aims to satisfy people’s psychological needs rather than demand for employment upon graduation.

Another reason, Huong pointed out, is the establishment of many universities. Many universities, particularly private ones, recruit students easily. Thus, people do not want to go to vocational schools, which are considered “lower class” than colleges. The quality of graduates is poor so these laborers fail to meet the need of the labor market.

Vietnamese workers are not proactive in identifying the needs of the labor market to choose the appropriate training fields at schools.

Research by JobStreet (the Southeast Asia employment advertising network) showed that the labor quality of Vietnam does not meet market demand.

Ms. Dieu Anh, Director of AIM Academy, said that one of the big problems of the local labor market is the serious shortage of high-end managers and highly experienced labor.

According to Vietnam’s workforce bulletin for the third quarter, which was released on December 24, in Q3, there were more than one million jobless nationwide, a reduction of nearly 16,000 people compared to Q2.

Also in the last three months, there was an estimated 54.44 million people working across the country, accounting for more than 76 percent of the population aged above 15. The figure for the third quarter was 53.17 million people, 30.5 percent of which were urban residents. The proportion of urban employees changed only slightly in the next quarter.

The market improvement was attributable to upbeat GDP growth, which was forecast at 6.9 percent in Q4 and over 6.5 percent in 2015.

The sectors of construction, retail and motor repair maintained their momentum throughout the second half of the year and were expected to create 659,000 additional jobs in Q4.

According to the report, in Q3, there were more than one million jobless people nationwide, a reduction of nearly 16,000 people compared to Q2. Strikingly, during the three-month period, 342,800 college and university graduates were unemployed.

Le Ha