Vietnam jobless rate lower than expected

The global economic slowdown has not caused job losses in Vietnam as severe as had been expected, government officials said Friday. The head of Vietnam's Labour and Employment Agency, Nguyen Dai Dong, said 130,000 people had lost their jobs so far this year, much lower than the expected figure of 300,000. In 2008, 80,000 people were put out of work, the government said.

"This shows job losses due to the global economic slowdown will not be very severe," Dong said. "Our economy has not been impacted as much as we thought."

The losses take only the formal sector of Vietnam's economy, in which about 10 million people are employed, into account and not the millions of workers in informal sectors, such as at street markets and small farms.

Senior Labour and Employment Agency official Ngo Thi Thai Ha said the steepest job losses had come in electronics and telecommunications manufacturing, construction, textiles and the footwear and seafood industries.

Vietnam has a workforce of about 45 million people, and each year, more than 1 million people are added, putting pressure on the government to provide jobs.