Vietnam’s lower GDP growth is forecast to cut 300,000 jobs this year, or 0.65 per cent of its manpower, Vietnam News Agency-run Vietnam News said on January 5, quoting the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs.
“Up to 300,000 workers will be affected by the economic slowdown, and the industrial and service sectors employing nine million workers will be the hardest-hit,” Nguyen Dai Dong, head of the ministry’s employment division noted.
More than 35 million laborers in agricultural production will see their working hours reduced by the wave, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, in late 2008, the ministry forecast that up to three million jobs will be cut in 2009 due bad impacts of the global downturn.
The ministry has requested that provinces and cities across Vietnam survey and fully report their unemployment rates by the second quarter this year.
The Vietnamese government plans to generate between 3 million to 3.2 million jobs this year and next to bring down unemployment rates in urban areas to less 5 per cent and reduce proportion of workers in agricultural sector to less 50 per cent.
The government also expects to send 100,000 workers abroad each year with 60 per cent of them being skilled workers and 10 per cent from rural areas, the paper said.
The government has issued a decree on unemployment insurance effective from early 2009 and valid until 2010 in an attempt to support local workers as well as create a legal framework for laid off workers.
On this occasion, Nguyen Thanh Hoa, deputy Minister of Labor dispelled concerns over regulations which will bring more hardship for businesses.
The government has decided to increase minimum month salary for 9.5 million workers in domestically-, foreign-invested companies effective from Jan 1 this year as part of efforts to increase demand to avert economic slowdown, state media said.
Numbers of strikes in Vietnam jumped 30 per cent on year in 2008.
The government has set the target of GDP growth rate of 6.5 per cent this year. (VNS)
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