University, post-graduate degrees account for 38 pct of unemployment rate in Vietnam

As many as 418,200 people who hold college, university and post-graduate degrees in Vietnam were unemployed in the second quarter of 2016, accounting for over 38.4 percent of the country's total unemployment rate.

According to Vietnam Labor Market Update for the second quarter of 2016 released by Vietnam's Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) on Wednesday, there were some 1.088 million Vietnamese people unemployed in the second quarter.

The figure of total unemployment saw an increase of 16,400 people compared to that in the first quarter of 2016.

Average wage of Vietnamese labors in the second quarter was 4. 85 million Vietnamese dong (over 217 U.S. dollars) a month, a decrease of 228,000 Vietnamese dong (over 10 U.S. dollars) compared to that in the first quarter of 2016.

Talking about the high unemployment rate among those holding college, university and post-graduate degrees, Dao Quang Vinh, director general of the Institute of Labor Science and Social Affairs under MOLISA said that people tend to go university instead of vocational training.

The country has been seeing redundancy of labors in economic and business administration sector, while there has been shortage of labors in engineering industry, Vinh said.

(APD)