Due to the low quality of labourers and unsteady jobs, the labour market is facing an imbalance between supply and demand.

According to experts, forecasting is an important factor in putting the labour market back on the right track.

Nguyen Thi Hai Van, Director of the National Center for Labor Market Forecasting and Information under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs, said the number of workers in Vietnam has seen an annual increase of 2.6-2.7 percent over the past ten years, from 40 million in 2001 to 50 million in 2010.

The quality of labourers has improved with 40 percent of them being trained. Labour productivity has increased by 4 percent annually and the number of employed workers has risen from 39 million in 2001 to more than 49 million in 2010.

While more and more people are now involved in the industry and construction sectors, the number of workers in the agricultural sector keeps decreasing (from the 64 percent in 2001 to 48.2 percent at present).

Nguyen Thi Hai Van

"Workers are not qualified, skillful and healthy enough to meet job requirements," Van said, “as most of them tend to learn what they like, not what the market needs. Therefore, some sectors are short of suitable workers”.

She added that there is no uniform standard of labour forecasting in Vietnam.

Labour forecasts are only made at macro or national level, so they are not very useful for vocational training schools, she said.

In order to ensure the quality of labour forecasting, there must be information input, a feasible forecasting model with modern equipment, and qualified staff.

With regard to the operation of the National Center for Labor Market Forecasting and Information, Van said the center has helped labourers, employers and managers gain easy access to updated information by opening a web portal on the labour market only two months after it was established.

Policy makers have also used the information from the website to develop feasible policies on the labour market, she said.

According to Pham Van Son, Director of the Educational and Training Ministry’s Support Center for Manpower Training and Supply, the planning of vocational training should meet the demands of the labour market.

“In order to ensure the quality of labourers, it is necessary to boost the labour forecasting and information,” Son said, “This will contribute to the rapid and sustainable development of domestic businesses and the country as a whole”.

He proposed that the State and provincial authorities help set up a large database for the labour market to provide updated information for vocational training schools and centres.