Of Vietnam’s 53.1 million work force aged 15 and above, 984,000 were unemployed as of October 1, 2012 – an unemployment rate of 2.01 percent.

According to a report, jointly conducted by the General Statistics Office (GSO) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO), released on December 18, on the country’s 2012 employment survey, 1,369,000 (2.74 percent) people were out of work due to an economy that cannot create enough jobs for new and old workers.

In the first nine months of the year, the unemployment rate in urban areas was 3.3 percent - much higher than that of 1.42 percent in rural areas.

Females account for 2.36 percent of all unemployed, and males, 1.71 percent.

Ho Chi Minh City has the highest unemployment rate at 3.92 percent, followed by the Mekong Delta region, the northern central region and central coastal region with 2.21 percent.

The rate in Hanoi was 2.15 percent. The northern midland and mountainous region reported the lowest rate of 0.77 percent.

According to the report, the Mekong Delta has the highest job shortage in the country, at 4.6 percent, followed by the Red River Delta with 3.45 percent. The lowest shortage was in HCM City at 0.54 percent.

Nguyen Bich Lam, General Director of the GSO, said the unemployment rate in the first nine months of the year was 0.33 percent lower than that in the same period last year.

Gyorgy Sziraczki, Director of the ILO Vietnam, stressed that the country needs more effective policies to deal with gender inequality among workers.-VNA