Posted : Mon, 02 Mar 2009 09:48:02 GMT

Author : DPA

Category : Business

Hanoi - The global economic slowdown will cause job losses in Vietnam in 2009 up to five times higher than those in 2008, government officials said Monday. "This year, according to our forecast, 300,000 workers are likely to lose their jobs in the first half of 2009 and an additional 100,000 will be made redundant in the second half," said Nguyen Thi Hai Van, deputy head of Vietnam's Labour and Employment Agency.

 

That compares with department figures showing 80,000 workers lost their jobs in 2008, according to the agency's head, Nguyen Dai Dong.

 

The losses refer only to the formal sector of Vietnam's economy, not to the millions of workers employed by informal sectors such as street markets and small farms.

 

Labour and Employment Agency said it was only now starting to collect data comparing the total number of jobs created each month to the number lost. A senior agency official, Bui Thi Thuy Quynh, said 70 per cent of the 35,000 laid-off workers in Ho Chi Minh City last year had found new jobs.

 

But with Vietnam's economy reliant on exports for 70 per cent of its revenue, job losses due to the global economic slowdown will clearly be severe.

 

Senior Labor and Employment Agency official Nguyen The Ha said the steepest job losses had come in the garment and textiles, footwear, and seafood industries.

 

Vietnam has no unemployment insurance. A new unemployment insurance system was scheduled to come into effect in 2010.

 

To fill the gap, on February 23 Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung announced that companies that have laid off 30 per cent of their workforce will be granted bank loans at zero interest in order to continue paying laid-off workers.

 

Localities were ordered to allocate money in advance to make the payments. In addition, the workers will have access to loans for vocational training courses.

 

Vietnam has a current workforce of approximately 45 million people and each year, more than 1 million people join this workforce, putting much pressure on its government in making enough jobs for its people.
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