Young people in Vietnam need to be supported to make their labour market transition smoother, which will help the country unleash their full potentials, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Vietnam has said.

“Unless Vietnam takes advantage of its huge young labour force that will soon pass their prime, it will have to pay long-term costs,” said Gyorgy Sziraczki, ILO Vietnam Country Director at an August 12 press release.

He emphasised the necessity to strengthen the link between education-training and export growth, intensify career guidance and job counseling, and boost labour market information.

According the first national school-to-work transition survey, carried out by the ILO and the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, the impact that low-productive employment among a majority of young people has on the growth prospects of the country is a big concern.

The findings of the nationwide survey indicate that poor quality employment affects more than half of young workers. Eight in ten are in informal employment and half of them work irregularly.

According to the survey, which looks at the passage of the young people from the end of schooling to the first stable or satisfactory job, three in every ten 15-29 year-old workers are overeducated for their job, making them likely to earn less than they could have and fail to use the most of their productive potential.

The data shows that young people remaining in transition have spent on average 6 years struggling to find a stable or satisfactory job.

Vietnam is among 28 target countries doing this similar poll, which has been developed to characterise the specific youth employment challenges and support policy-makers in designing adequate instruments to help the transition of young people into employment.

The survey was part of the global Work4Youth partnership between the ILO Youth Employment Programme and The MasterCard Foundation. The 14.6 million USD project will run for five years to mid-2016.-VNA