The growing number of foreign workers in Vietnam, including unskilled laborers, is putting the job stability of the local workforce at risk, forcing many to contemplate the possibility of losing their jobs, state media has said.
Navigos Group, a human resource service provider, reported sharp increases in the numbers of foreign workers recruited online to work in Vietnam between the end of last year and the first half of 2008, peaking at almost 70 per cent.
The number of foreign workers has dramatically risen since the Vietnamese government decided in April 2008 to drop the limitation of 3 per cent on foreign staff in local business, Navigos Group added.
Under its WTO commitments, Vietnam is required to make it easier for foreigners to come to the country to work for their current employers or to seek employment opportunities, it also said.
A shortage of skilled local workers has been a factor underlying the import of overseas experts and managers by foreign-invested businesses, whose demand for workers is increasing at a rate of 20-30 per cent each year. This rate is expected to be even higher in the future as the amount of disbursed FDI continues to increase.
Although Vietnam has yet to officially allow the import of blue-collar foreign workers, it is reported that some 90,000 such laborers are currently working in the country, including 5,000 workers from Africa and the Middle East who arrived during 2007 and 2008.
Experts from the Institute of Labor Science and Social Affairs said the “infiltration” of foreign workers is a cause for concern, particularly when one and a half million locals remain unemployed each year, adding that this is a normal situation, as the local workforce fails to meet the market’s demands.
However, they added, local vocational training centers should consider this a challenge to be tackled by increasing the quality of the training that is currently offered, to ensure the domestic market has a ready supply of skilled local workers. (VNA)
Vietnamese
