Almost 734,000 people found new jobs in the first half of 2012, a year-on-year increase of 2 percent, reported the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) on June 19.

The Ministry said that 695,000 people found jobs in the country and 39,000 others were sent abroad to work as guest workers and that this is a good news for the country considering the current economic difficulties. Several ministries, cities and provinces have all worked tirelessly to create the extra jobs and all their hard work seems to have paid off.

Along with creating job, the country has also carried a range of activities to publicise information on employment and forecast the labor market more accurately. In the first six months of this year, over 300 job fairs were held in 44 cities and provinces, double the number held last year.

The Ministry has introduced several measures to stabilise the market and solve any ongoing difficulties with policies and procedures. It has also overhauled the operations of labour exporters to protect the legal rights of workers overseas.

MoLISA Deputy Minister Nguyen Ngoc Phi said that in the next six months, the ministry will create more opportunities for Vietnamese in other countries because the traditional markets which take Vietnamese workers are still growing and the Middle Eastern market is showing signs of recovery.

The ministry is also working to promote sending Vietnamese workers to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Finland and Switzerland.-VNA