Job Exchange - Supply and Demand Mismatch

(Baonghean) - Every month, the job fair at the Provincial Employment Service Center (No. 201, Phong Dinh Cang, Vinh City) regularly opens two job fairs on the 10th and 25th to connect workers and businesses. Observing these recruitments, we can somewhat identify the current shortcomings of the labor market in the province...

Unattractive

In October 2010, the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs launched the Job Exchange, which is directly managed and operated by the Provincial Employment Service Center. To date, after more than 5 years of operation, 98 job exchanges have been held with the participation of more than 900 businesses and nearly 26,000 workers.

However, compared to the initial target of 50-70 workers finding jobs in each session, it can be said that the Job Exchange is operating ineffectively. In 2015, there were 23 job exchanges organized; from the beginning of 2016 until now, there have been 4 sessions; but the number of workers finding jobs in each session is quite low (the highest was only 37 people, the rest were approximately 15-25 people).

Interviewing workers at the Provincial Employment Exchange.

The reason for this situation is, first of all, that job fairs are not really a bridge between workers and recruitment agencies. The proof is that although it has been in operation for more than 5 years, the Job Fair is still not known by many workers and businesses. To promote the job fair, the Job Service Center has only contacted industrial parks, the Provincial Youth Union, schools, vocational training facilities in the province... but has not yet promoted through local authorities, lacking mobile propaganda campaigns, leaflet distribution, advertising on mass media... so that local workers in the province can grasp information about the fair.

On the other hand, currently, the activities of the Job Exchange only take place in a room of about 70 square meters with about 10 computers for information search, the interview area is narrow, not meeting the needs of workers and businesses. Mr. Ho Xuan Hung - Director of the Provincial Employment Service Center said: "The problem is to promote strongly and invest in facilities for the Job Exchange. But each year, the superiors only provide 50 million VND in operating funds for the Job Exchange, so it is difficult to implement".

Supply and demand do not match.

At the job fair on the morning of February 25, 2016, according to the registration list, in the “educational level” section, there were many workers with university and college degrees. Mr. Duong Xuan Phuc - in charge of the Market Information Department said: “In the past year or so, the fields with high recruitment demand are sales, marketing, product introduction, restaurant and hotel service staff, mechanical workers, civil electricity, garment, wood processing... These fields only require workers with intermediate and elementary vocational qualifications, even unskilled labor. However, in recent years, according to our estimates, 65 - 70% of workers participating in job fairs are recent university and college graduates, commonly in the fields of accounting, business administration, law, pedagogy...”.

Nearly a year after graduating from university with a major in accounting, Nguyen Thi Thuy (born in 1993, residing in Nam Tan commune, Nam Dan district) still has not found a job in her field of study. Thuy went to the Job Exchange and registered to apply for the position of marketing staff for a food brand. Thuy said: “This is the second time this month that I have come to the Job Exchange. I see that the accounting industry has a large number of graduates. Meanwhile, most of the units that need to recruit accounting staff recruit employees from “acquaintances”, so it is very difficult for new graduates like us to find a job.”

Workers learn about jobs through banners and announcements from factories. Illustrative photo

On the other hand, through the job fairs, it is easy to see that the awareness and skills of workers are still limited. Having participated in the job fair many times, Mr. Tran Kim Thanh - Director of Ha Thanh Construction and Mechanical Joint Stock Company said: “The labor force coming to find jobs at the fairs are often young people with unclear career orientation. They often “job hop” and are not very committed to their jobs. Many people prepare their documents very roughly, sometimes submitting them to explore and learn how to interview for jobs to gain experience, but do not really have a need to find a job. Therefore, although there are many workers coming to find jobs, businesses like us still have difficulty recruiting workers who meet the requirements, and therefore businesses are not very interested in the job fairs”.

Minh Quan