More workers unemployed despite job vacancies Though the unemployment rate has risen, enterprises complain they are finding it difficult to recruit workers, Nguyen Anh Tuan, head of the Vietnam Productivity Institute (VNPI), said after meeting recently with the local press.   According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), Vietnam’s productivity in 2013 was among the lowest in Asia Pacific. The productivity was 15 times lower than Singapore’s, 11 times lower than Japan’s, 10 times lower than South Korea’s and 5 times than Malaysia’s. The Asian Productivity Organization (APO) reported that Vietnam’s productivity was two times lower than ASEAN’s average level. Meanwhile, Vietnam has a strong labor force. In 2013, Vietnam had 69.3 million people aged 15 and higher, while the labor force included 53.7 million people, or 77.5 percent. Citing a report which says that 80 percent of Vietnamese workers are untrained, Tuan said this was because of the Vietnamese workers’ limited ability in acquiring knowledge and the latest technological achievements. He also pointed out that millions of workers with bachelor’s degrees and trained workers were unemployed, while universities, junior colleges and vocational schools have been increasing at a fast rate. “It is necessary to find out why there are many training establishments in Vietnam, but the proportion of trained workers who can satisfy businesses’ requirements remains low,” he said. “It’s now the right time for training establishments to apply reasonable programs which can produce the workers that enterprises need,” he said. “Workers are unused after training, while businesses badly need workers. This is why Vietnam’s productivity is so low,” he added. While regional countries have made big leaps in improving their productivity, Vietnam has been walking very slowly. Laos’ productivity was lower than Vietnamese in the past, but it caught up with Vietnam in 2013, and has exceeded Vietnam. If Vietnam maintains the low productivity growth rate of 3.6-3.9 per annum, it would only be able to catch up with Thailand in 50 years. Regarding the unemployment situation in Vietnam, the Labor and Social Sciences Institute in July released the Q1 labor report saying that the highest unemployment rates were found in the group of workers finishing junior colleges and vocational schools, 7.2 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, only 1.97 percent of unskilled workers were unemployed. The unemployment rate in Q1 was reported at 2.43 percent, an increase of 0.22 percent compared with the same period last year. According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), in the first quarter of 2015, more than four out of 100 university and junior college graduates do not have jobs. Dat Viet