In order to remove the difficulties for the labour market in the current period, many businesses have come up with flexible and synchronous measures to introduce jobs for workers.
As an employee of a company specialising in electronics in Hanoi, Tran Thi Minh from Thai Binh Province did not expect to be unemployed so quickly. She said: “I, and over 100 other workers, have lost our jobs at a foreign-invested enterprise in Quang Minh Industrial Zone in Me Linh District, Hanoi. After the Lunar New Year holiday, due to difficulties in exports, we were required to take turns to rest. My income was reduced from VND8 million to just over VND3 million per month. In early March, when the Covid-19 outbreak had become more complicated, the company asked workers to take time off indefinitely. I had to find another job to live in Hanoi”.
Tran Van Huy has also lost his job as an accountant of a travel company in Hoan Kiem District due to the Covid-19 epidemic. He went to Hanoi Job Service Centre to register as a recipient of unemployment benefits. However, the centre’s officials advised Huy to register for online recruitment and he then found a new job. “Amidst the Covid-19 outbreak, online recruitment helped us to avoid crowds and the risk of disease transmission”, he said.
According to the leader of the Hanoi Job Service Centre, Covid-19 epidemic has greatly affected the labour market. By the end of March, around 40% of the 240,000 enterprises had to narrow their scale or temporarily suspend their operations; meanwhile, thousands of local labourers lost their jobs or had their working hours reduced. The industries most affected were tourism, service, restaurant-hotel business, transportation, and garments.
Those who lost their jobs or faced the risk of losing jobs were mainly seasonal and unskilled workers. However, many enterprises still need to recruit and use labourers. Therefore, in order to remove difficulties for the labour market in the current context, the Hanoi Job Service Centre has proactively coordinated with relevant agencies and localities to collect information and develop the online connection between enterprises and workers.
Recruitments are mainly for the fields of business, electronic engineering, electronics, accounting, office work, and technicians. The centre has sent messages to thousands of labourers, providing them with information on both the weekly employment transactions on Tuesday and Thursday as well as thematic and mobile transactions. In addition, the communication on employment transaction floor has been boosted via facebook and social network fanpages and groups.
Recently, the job service centres in many provinces and cities nationwide have also diversified employment transaction activities to create more opportunities for workers, especially young people. Bac Ninh is one of the localities with the highest number of industrial zones and newly-established enterprises; therefore, demand for labour recruitment has also increased. As a result, the labour market in the province has been significantly affected since the Lunar New Year holiday due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In order to adapt to the situation, the provincial Job Service Centre has gradually changed its methods of operation, ensuring its role as a bridge connecting workers with enterprises. In the past, job introduction was conducted in many forms such as the organisation of concentrated transaction floors every Thursday and mobile exchanges in the districts, towns and vocational training facilities. However, since the appearance of Covid-19, the centre has proactively and flexibly built the plan to introduce jobs via website and conduct online interviews. This simple method has brought about positive results. The activities have been taking place with the interaction between enterprises and employees. Specifically, businesses proactively provide information on needs, quantities and vacancies that will be posted on the centre’s website, while appointing an official to interview job applications through supportive software. With the use of smart phones or computers that are connected to the internet, workers can search for full information about the enterprises and be granted online interviews.
According to experts from the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs, the numbers of both workers seeking jobs and businesses recruiting employees through the job service centres have increased. The centres have promoted their role in connecting labour supply and demand, contributing to creating jobs for the locals. Through the operation of job transaction floors, the employees and employers have had more opportunities to meet and exchange. However, besides the achieved results, the current information system on labour market has not been completed with a lack of connection in information on the regional and national scale. Furthermore, the operations of the job service centres have been inconsistent, which has prevented them from becoming connected on a national scale. In addition, the application of information and technology in the centres’ system has been limited; and the employment transaction activities have been conducted mainly in the cities and the areas with a high number of employees.
In order to create more opportunities for workers who have reduced hours or stop working due to Covid-19 to find jobs, the job service centres should rapidly collect, update and analyse the labour market and the demand and requirements of employment at the enterprises. It is crucial to enhance the communications of the laws and policies on labour and employment; widely disseminate the information and data on the labour market in various forms such as job portals, newsletters, websites and mass media. The centres should also improve the efficiency of the satellite job transaction floors in the cities to create favourable conditions for employees and employers to search and connect the information that has been collected and archived in the labour supply and demand database.
The job service centres should also regularly connect with enterprises to obtain information about job vacancies and then update them on their official websites or message boards. Thus, the workers can easily register, search for information, and find jobs.
