Workers are “thirsty” for work after Tet…

(Baonghean) -After the long Tet holiday, workers in rural areas go south to find jobs or seek labor export opportunities, while for those who wish to find work in the province, there are not many opportunities for them...

Having gone to Vinh City to look for a job for several days but still not finding a suitable job, Mr. Nguyen Van Quyen in Nam Trung (Nam Dan) went to the Provincial Employment Center to submit his application. Mr. Quyen said: “After graduating from an intermediate level in Electricity, I worked as a worker for a wooden furniture manufacturing enterprise in Saigon for 2 years, but after getting married and having children, my income was not enough to cover living expenses and rent a house, so I wanted to find a job that suited my skills and was enough to support my family in my hometown, but it was really difficult…”. Similar to Mr. Quyen, Mr. Nguyen Van Hung in Dien Chau, after the Tet holiday, decided not to “go South” but to stay and look for job opportunities in the province. However, despite knocking on many doors, luck still did not smile on Mr. Hung, because wherever he went, he received the answer “no degree so no need to recruit…”.

Mr. Le Van Thang - Head of Organization - Administration Department (Provincial Job Center) said: A series of businesses have stopped operating, leading to a shortage of jobs and the demand for labor recruitment has also changed in the direction of prioritizing trained workers to save time and training costs. Therefore, job opportunities are only given to trained workers with skills that meet the requirements of employers. On the other hand, in our province, there are mainly small and medium enterprises, so the demand for recruitment is not much. According to statistics from the Unemployment Insurance Department (Provincial Job Center), from January 1 to February 25, 2013, the number of people applying for unemployment insurance was 1,427, of which 141 people registered for unemployment in the province, the rest were transferred from other areas. Currently, only 612 people have received decisions to receive unemployment insurance. The number of workers looking for jobs according to preliminary statistics from the Market Department (from the beginning of January to February 27) is 903 people, including 158 freelance workers and 745 unemployed workers. According to Mr. Thang, through organizing periodic job fairs on the 10th and 20th of each month, the center has combined with organizing for workers to come and announce their job search and vocational training. From the beginning of January until now, although 34 enterprises have registered to participate in recruitment, they have only introduced jobs to 99 workers, including 56 freelance workers and 43 unemployed workers. The Provincial Youth Support and Development Center under the Provincial Youth Union also said that currently, only 2 units, the Traffic Construction Corporation 4 and Brother Co., Ltd., manufacturing and assembling printers (Hai Duong) have announced their need to recruit workers...

Workers come to get passports to work abroad at the Immigration Department.

Because it is very difficult to find a job locally and the salary is low, in addition to going far from home to find a job, labor export is also a trend chosen by many people. Mr. Dang Trong Ky - Block 3, Dien Chau Town, who is applying to work in Japan at the Immigration Department (Provincial Police) said: "After graduating from the University of Electricity, I could not find a job, so I decided to go to Japan to study and work to find opportunities for myself. If I am lucky enough to have a little capital, after returning home and not being able to find a government job, I can still start my own business. If I stay at home, I don't know when I will be able to find a job." As for Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoa in Nghi Loc, although her daughter is only two years old, she still decided to go to Malaysia to work in the hope that "life will be better than working in the fields in the countryside"... Captain Thuc Van Duc - Immigration Management Department (Provincial Police) said: Since Tet until now, the Immigration Management Department has always been overloaded by the number of people coming to apply for passports and travel documents. Within 8 days after Tet, the Immigration Management Department received and processed 9,013 applications, including 6,316 passports and 2,694 travel documents. On average, the department processes more than 1,000 applications per day, with the peak being the first day when it received 1,600 applications, an increase of about 2,500 - 3,000 applications compared to the same period last year, mainly to Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan...

According to data from the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, our province has the fourth largest labor force in the country with more than 1.8 million people. Due to the imbalance in the ability to invest and attract investment to create jobs on the spot with the increase in the labor force (each year the number of workers added to the source is approximately 35,000 people), job creation for workers is a pressure. On average, the province creates jobs for about 33,000 - 35,000 people each year, of which more than 10,000 are exported; 13,000 people are employed on the spot and more than 10,000 people go to work in other provinces; not to mention a significant number of workers in our province who go to work seasonally in Laos and some other provinces. However, in the job creation program, 1/3 of the employed workers are from outside the province and most of them are young workers. Of the workers who go to work in the provinces, 12% wish to do so, while the remaining 88% are unable to find work locally and have to go far away. This shows that after Tet, the countryside is deserted with young people, the youth union branches in rural areas have no members to participate in activities, and the party branches have no resources to recruit new members. To solve this problem, there must be long-term and synchronous solutions, including attracting and calling for investment, expanding occupations, supporting vocational training, and creating more opportunities for workers in rural and mountainous areas to find suitable jobs and have the conditions to establish themselves and make a career right in their hometown.

Article and photos: Khanh Ly