VietNamNet Bridge – Unemployment is set to increase in HCM City in the coming months as enterprises strive to cut labour costs, citing the ongoing economic recession.
People apply for jobs in HCM City after the Tet holiday. During the days and weeks following the holidays, enterprises in the city used to scramble to find enough workers to replace those who quit ahead of the holiday.
During the days and weeks following Tet (Lunar New Year) festival, enterprises in the city used to scramble to look for enough workers in place of those who’d decided to stay back at home or seek other jobs.
This year, workers have been finding it difficult to find jobs after Tet. Luong Dinh Tam, an automobile engineer, told the Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberated Sai Gon) Newspaper that he had applied to four companies for a job, but was yet to land one.
Dak Lak native Pham Thi Huyen, an economics graduate who’s failed to find a job in HCM City, told the newspaper she would return to her hometown. She said several people suggested that she works as a manual labourer while searching for an appropriate job.
Nguyen Cong Tien from central Nghe An Province said he could easily find jobs after Tet in previous years. This year, he was forced to doing odd job to earn money. His income has reduced but expenses, including room rents, have increased in the city, he said.
Many enterprises have stopped hiring more workers because of the economic slump, while others are looking to cut employees in order to reduce costs, experts say.
Cu Phat Nghiep, head of labour union at PouYuen Viet Nam Company, an enterprise that employs more than 75,000 Vietnamese workers, said that usually, the company loses several thousand workers after Tet.
However this year, the rate of workers returning to work was calculated at 100 percent.
Last year, the company had employed 82,000 workers. Some 700 workers had stopped working and the company decided not to recruit more, Nghiep said.
However, Tran Anh Tuan, deputy head of the Centre for Information and Human Resources Forecasting in HCM City, said that the city needs 270,000 new workers this year.
Ho Xuan Lam, chief of the office of the HCM City Export Processing Zone and Industrial Park and Authority, told Sai Gon Giai Phong that more than 90 per cent of the employees have returned to their companies and more are expected to do so in the coming days.
Source: VNS