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Young employees are seeking jobs at a job fair |
Unemployment rate accounts for 7.61 percent
At yesterday’s Youth Employment Policy Forum 2023 co-hosted by the National Assembly's Committee for Culture, Education, Adolescents and Children, the National Committee for Youth in Vietnam, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, and the Central Youth Union, Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Le Van Thanh spoke that thanks to synchronous policies, labor and employment work for young people has lately achieved positive results.
Currently, there are more than 29.3 percent of trained youth workers across the country, and youth labor force accounts for 21.4 percent of the national labor force. Young laborers tended to shift to work in industry and service sectors with a proportion of 69.2 percent.
However, there is still a shortage of specific policies for young workers, especially special and disadvantaged groups while financial resources for programs and projects to support job creation for young people are still limited. Therefore, the country is still facing a challenge - youth unemployment, especially in the age group 15-24 which has affected the national economy. In the first quarter of 2023, the unemployment rate for this age group was 7.61 percent, 3.38 times higher than the national unemployment rate.
Worse, at the same time, the number of young workers likely losing their present jobs is three times higher than older peers.
Mr. Vu Minh Tien, Director of the Institute of Workers and Trade Unions under the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, said that the Institute's delegation conducted a field survey and met with workers in three provinces in the south in April. The survey results show an alarming fact that workers, especially young workers, have reduced working hours, lost their jobs, and received unemployment benefits.
Government should pay more attention to disadvantaged people
Moreover, the rate of unemployed young workers in the South is much higher than in the North. While more young people are facing a reduction of working hours and decreased incomes, the most important thing to solve the problem is to create jobs for young workers.
At the forum, many participants voiced their opinions about hot issues affecting young people's employment namely the strong international division of labor in the glove, the explosion of the fourth industrial revolution. Additionally, the fact that Vietnam is moving from a young population to an aging population was also heard at the forum.
Facing these difficulties, Mr. Nguyen Hoang Ha from the International Labor Organization (ILO) said that employment trends require young workers to have high professional qualifications.
Therefore, the Vietnamese government needs to have proper policies to encourage young people to learn skills, knowledge and new ways of working that are more suitable, especially with the trend of green jobs in a green economic environment.
Last but not least, many participants suggested management agencies have more preferential policies for people with disabilities and ethnic minorities by helping them get jobs and get loans.
In respect of the matter, Ms. Nguyen Thi Quyen, Deputy Director of the Employment Department under the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, said the policies for these groups of people are the targets for future implementation.
Experts also forecast that in the coming years, the world situation will continue to have rapid, complicated and unpredictable developments. Therefore, competent agencies need to take heed of raising awareness of young people and society about employment as well as developing employment policies for young people.
Moreover, participants also suggested that there should be a comprehensive policy on vocational training and employment for young people; In which, it is necessary to have separate policies for each different group such as rural youth and workers, urban workers, disabled people, ethnic minorities, demobilized soldiers, and students.
In particular, the newly developed policies need to closely follow the practical context after the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic and the 4.0 revolution.
According to First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union (HCYU), opinions at the forum will provide a theoretical and practical basis to help the National Assembly's Committee for Culture, Education, Adolescents and Children, the National Committee for Youth in Vietnam, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs make recommendations to the National Assembly, the Government and the Prime Minister to issue employment policies suitable to the new situation, increasing employment opportunities for young people.
