10% of young Vietnamese unemployed

The unemployment rate among young laborers (aged 15-29) was 7.6% over the first quarter of this year, according to official data.

The figure is 3.4 times higher than the overall rate (2.25%), Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Le Van Thanh told a forum on Friday.

He said the rate is not alarming compared to that of the region and the world, but it reflects a mismatch between labor supply and demand.

"We need to identify whether or not the low quality of young laborers is the cause, in order to create a solution to help them," said Thanh.

The country currently has 10.8 million young workers, accounting for 21.4% of the labor force, which is "an abundant and potential source of labor supply," he said.

Of the population of young workers, 69% work in industry and services, and two-thirds are working abroad. Most of those abroad work in high-income markets such as Japan, Korea, Taiwan.

Thanh acknowledged that young workers face many challenges as not many are trained and new graduates lack soft skills in general.