Labour export market faces up to fresh challenges

Following the COVID-19 containment domestically, Vietnamese labour export firms have begun to recruit workers, with many complaining that recruiting workers is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Nguyen Viet Xuan, an executive of Viet Thang Company, stated recent times has seen the firm send only a few dozen employees to markets such as Japan, Taiwan (China), and Romania. Most of them had signed contracts with recipients overseas, but were unable to fly due to COVID-19.

It is now far more difficult for the firm to find new workers for the following year, as Vietnamese workers hesitate to travel abroad for COVID-19 fears, Xuan said.

Nguyen Xuan Hung, director of Laco Labour Cooperation Company Limited, said his company has been unable to send any local workers abroad since February this year, except for only 40 workers I the recent recruitments.

“The fact that employers could not fly to Vietnam to directly recruit workers due to COVID-19 and prospective employees were tired of time-consuming dossier appraising procedures as well as complicated quarantine measures has slowed down the recruitment process,” Hung confided.

Meanwhile, a number of co-operation programmes between Vietnam and partners that send local workers abroad have also faced difficulties in recruitment.

According to Tran Thi Van Ha, head of Communications of the Department of Overseas Labour Management, such programmes have not drawn enough attention from those keen to work abroad at present.

“Under a programme, we need to recruit 240 local workers, but due to insufficient interest we have decided to extend the deadline, originally scheduled for October 18, for an additional month,” Ha said.

Facing the difficult situation, a number of firms have been forced to switch their employment drive into an online recruitment advertising as a means of cutting out any fee for middlemen.

Doan Mau Diep, chairman of the Vietnam Labor Export Association, said with winter approaching, the risk of the epidemic looks set to increase in European and Asian markets. He therefore predicted that the export labour market would continue to face challenges until the middle of next year.