High levels of redundancy and a low ratio of skilled workers are major problems for fulfilment of the labour market development strategy for 2011-20, said the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) at a workshop on August 19.
The workshop, co-sponsored by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and held in the nation’s most populous Ho Chi Minh City , revealed that if part of the workforce is withdrawn, there would be no change in national production outputs.
Agricultural labour’s domination is evidence of the low quality of the labour market.
The GDP-employment ratio of 0.28, namely when the GDP rises one percent, the employment rate goes up by just 0.28 percent, is low in the region.
Underemployment is another problem. In 2008, the country witnessed 1.43 million underemployed, of whom 1.4 million came from countryside.
Labour costs in Vietnam are considered cheap, with minimum and base salaries meeting just 60-65 percent of basic living costs.
The quality of human resources fails to meet market demands. Statistics in 2009 showed that skilled workers made up just seven percent of the labour force.
The labour market revealed some other weak points related to the legal system, dialogue mechanism, labour security and flexibility, social welfare and support for vulnerable groups.
Lin Lean Lim, a senior expert from the ILO, said the competitive edge of Vietnamese labour was on a downward trend.
She said one of the main causes was that human resource quality improvements were placed on hold while economic growth and scientific and technological infrastructure were multiplied.
She called on Vietnam to gear human resources development to market demands and said a worker should master one skill but be capable of applying it to different jobs and in different conditions.
MOLISA forecasts that the labour force would grow by almost 500,000 in each of the next 10 years, bringing the total number to 53.14 million by 2020.
The national labour market development strategy for the 2011-20 period targets at 58.5 percent of skilled workers and a reduction of farmers to 31 percent from the current 51 percent.
Unemployment is estimated at 1.72 million by 2020, and the number of insured workers will be 15.7 million./.
The workshop, co-sponsored by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and held in the nation’s most populous Ho Chi Minh City , revealed that if part of the workforce is withdrawn, there would be no change in national production outputs.
Agricultural labour’s domination is evidence of the low quality of the labour market.
The GDP-employment ratio of 0.28, namely when the GDP rises one percent, the employment rate goes up by just 0.28 percent, is low in the region.
Underemployment is another problem. In 2008, the country witnessed 1.43 million underemployed, of whom 1.4 million came from countryside.
Labour costs in Vietnam are considered cheap, with minimum and base salaries meeting just 60-65 percent of basic living costs.
The quality of human resources fails to meet market demands. Statistics in 2009 showed that skilled workers made up just seven percent of the labour force.
The labour market revealed some other weak points related to the legal system, dialogue mechanism, labour security and flexibility, social welfare and support for vulnerable groups.
Lin Lean Lim, a senior expert from the ILO, said the competitive edge of Vietnamese labour was on a downward trend.
She said one of the main causes was that human resource quality improvements were placed on hold while economic growth and scientific and technological infrastructure were multiplied.
She called on Vietnam to gear human resources development to market demands and said a worker should master one skill but be capable of applying it to different jobs and in different conditions.
MOLISA forecasts that the labour force would grow by almost 500,000 in each of the next 10 years, bringing the total number to 53.14 million by 2020.
The national labour market development strategy for the 2011-20 period targets at 58.5 percent of skilled workers and a reduction of farmers to 31 percent from the current 51 percent.
Unemployment is estimated at 1.72 million by 2020, and the number of insured workers will be 15.7 million./.
