VietNamNet Bridge – While universities and junior colleges report the high percentages of graduates who can find jobs, job centers and local labor departments have reported the increasingly high unemployment rate.

Unemployment rates high

The latest report of the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) showed that 70 percent of the graduates from state owned schools can find jobs within one year after the graduation, while the percentage is lower for non-state owned schools.

Meanwhile, schools all report high percentages, above 90 percent, of the graduates who can find jobs. Especially, the Lac Hong University and Hai Phong Medical University have reported that 100 percent of their graduates have found jobs.

The state owned Diplomatic Academy has reported that 97-98 percent of its graduates can find jobs within one year. The percentages are 60-85 percent for the Hanoi National University and 75 percent for the Hanoi Economics University.

However, job centers have reported much lower figures about the employment rate. A research work by the HCM City Job Center conducted in August 2012 showed that only 50 percent of new graduates can find jobs within one year.

Also according to the center, 60 percent of employers want the candidates with at least one-year experiences, while 70 percent of candidates don’t have experiences.

The high percentages of employed graduates reported by schools have raised the doubt that schools deliberately “fabricate” the figures in order to attract more learners, when they are thirsty for learners.

Thanh Hoa leads the country in unemployment rate

A report by the Thanh Hoa provincial Education and Training Department showed that 24,965 graduates had not found jobs by February 20, 2013. These included 45 people with post-university education level, 5,674 university graduates and 6,845 junior college graduates.

Especially, the highest unemployment rate has been reported for the graduates of pedagogical schools (3.762). It’s quite a surprise that information technology majoring graduates (3,650) also cannot find jobs, though this has been considered as the key industry of Vietnam.

The high redundancy rates have also been reported for economics, business administration, agriculture - forestry – fisheries graduates.

The unemployed graduates have been found as mostly coming from the poor districts of Hoang Hoa, Quang Xuong, Trieu Son and Quan Son.

It is estimated that 20,000 students in Thanh Hoa province pass the entrance exams to universities, junior colleges and vocational schools every year. However, Thanh Hoa is leading the country in the unemployment rate.

Unskilled workers in high demand

According to Lao Dong newspaper, in Dong Nai province, enterprises have been thirsty for blue collar workers. Of the 1,124 job opportunities offered at the Dong Nai Job Center, 70 percent are reserved for unskilled workers, while only 8 percent of university graduates are needed.

In Dong Nai, where there are many industrial zones with production factories, the demand for workers with high technique skills is very high. Technique majoring engineers are welcomed there, who can enjoy the monthly salaries 2-3 times higher than normal workers’. However, the enterprises in industrial zones only accept the candidates with 2-3-year experience.

Especially, 50 percent of the candidates, applying for simple jobs which just need workers finishing high schools, have bachelor degrees.

The HCM City labor department has also reported that 57.7 percent of job opportunities have been reserved for unskilled workers, while enterprises only need 20 percent of the workers with university degrees.

Nguyen Thao