HÀ NỘI – Over 1 million people at working age remain unemployed in the second quarter of this year, Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs  (MoLISA) has announced in its latest labour market bulletin. 

Among the total unemployed people, about 286,000 were holding college and university degrees or higher, according to the MoLISA.

The MoLISA bulletin, issued on Wednesday at a conference in Hà Nội, has also updated information about the domestic labour market with some negative news, including an increase in the jobless rate among highly skilled workers.

The ministry said a large number of highly educated workers who are unemployed, had caused more challenges to the national education sector and forced it to intensify reforms to meet the quality demands as called for by the domestic labour market.

The second quarter report on national labour market also revealed a slow progress in improving the quality of labour through education, as qualified labourers were found making up only 20 per cent of the total labour force, a slight increase of 0.56 per cent over the same period last year.

MoLISA Deputy Minister Doãn Mậu Diệp admitted there was a low demand for employees with high education, which was a challenge for the domestic labour market.

“Currently, while the domestic labour market is facing a surplus of highly educated labourers, it is struggling with a shortage of workers with high qualifications and engineers,” said the deputy minister.

Diệp asserted the significance of early and suitable job orientations among young people, adding that the “race of academic qualifications” has resulted in hundreds of thousands of university graduates unable to find jobs. 

He called on young people to be careful before choosing to study in any university or college. He said they should carefully consider whether studying at a university or college would help them find jobs.

The official also said that labour and education sectors should co-operate to provide forecasts on the labour market so that education plans could meet demands of the labour force.

Meanwhile, Director of the Institute of Labour Science Đào Quang Vinh said a lack of working experience and a gap between training and market demand – excessive manpower in some areas such as business and economics, but a shortage in technological and technical engineers - are major reasons for high unemployment among new graduates. 

The unemployment rate in Việt Nam, as reported by the General Statistics Office of Việt Nam, increased to 2.05 per cent in the first quarter of 2016, from 1.99 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2015.

The rate averaged 2.32 per cent from 1998 until 2016, reaching an all-time high of 4.50 per cent in the fourth quarter of 1998, and a record low of 1.63 per cent in the second quarter of 2014. - VNS