Local areas have been asked to create more channels to connect job-seekers and enterprises as the country aims to reach its target of creating 1.6 million jobs this year.

Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Pham Thi Hai Chuyen said that it will be a big challenge for Vietnam to reach this goal, which is just a little higher than last year's target of 1.52 million new jobs.

The ministry plans to decrease the number of workers in the agricultural, forestry and fishery sectors to 46 percent and raise the number in industrial and construction fields to 23.5 percent.

Meanwhile, more than 1.9 million people are expected to receive further vocational training.

Lam Duy Tin, deputy director of southern Dong Nai province's Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Department said the province has formed the country's largest job placement centre to provide a source of proper information for both enterprises and those who are out of work.

So far, companies in the region have advertised positions for more than 60,000 workers this year. More than 83 percent of them are required to have graduated from vocational training school or be able to demonstrate working experience, he said.

Huynh Ngoc Long, director of the centre, said that the office will be helping workers not only in the province, but in southern and Central Highlands regions, by arranging regular meetings between job-seekers and enterprises.

Vu Trung Chinh, director of Hanoi's Job Placement Centre said that unlike the many unofficial employment services defrauding out-of-work labourers, job placement centres are taking an effective role in assisting them.-VNA