Workers with degrees make up 21.39% of labour force

The number of Vietnamese workers holding college and university degrees or higher accounted for 21.39% of the labour force in the last quarter of 2016, up 0.4% from the previous quarter.

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs and the General Statistics Office announced the information in Hanoi on March 29 as part of their latest labour market bulletin.

A jobs centre in Vinh Phuc province

According to the report, the labour market in the fourth quarter of 2016 saw positive changes with a decreasing employment rate in the agro-forestry-fisheries sector, increasing average salaries of paid workers and a falling unemployment rate.

Paid employees earned a monthly salary of VND5.08 million on average, an increase of VND143,000 from the third quarter of 2016 and VND412,000 from the same period of 2015.

The average monthly incomes of paid employees also varied among regions and sectors. The paid workers living in urban areas received the highest monthly payment of about VND6.03 million, while those working in finance, banking and insurance earned the highest.

Enterprises in Vietnam looked for people to fill more than 224,000 positions during the last quarter of 2016, down 20,600 from the third quarter, and 87.3% of which were from non-state companies.

Some 64 job placement centres across the country organised 336 matching sessions during which 780,000 people were provided with career consultations and about 242,000 of them got jobs.

In the first quarter of this year, the labour force is forecast to slightly expand by 0.7% year on year and the employed population is estimated to number 53.19 million, down 0.39% compared to the last quarter of 2016.

The rate of paid employees will slightly increase, accounting for 42.3%, while workers in the agro-forestry-fisheries sector will decrease slightly. The unemployment rate is predicted at 2.13%.

(Source: NDO)