Employment rate under scrutiny
Employment rate under scrutiny
Although the economy continues to grow at a high rate, Laos is facing rising unemployment, with many people wanting to work for the government.
The government claims that the employment rate is very low (below 2 percent), but this figure has been queried by economists who say that many jobseekers, particularly university graduates, are struggling to find work.
A senior economist at the National Economic Research Institute, Dr Leeber Leebouapao, told Vientiane Times on Thursday that economic growth was mainly driven by the mining and energy sectors but these sectors did not generate many jobs for Lao people.
�Many companies are advertising jobs but they offer very low wages which is unattractive to most Lao people. A high percentage of new graduates are unemployed,� Dr Leeber said.
Last week the National Assembly sold application forms to candidates wanting to sit an examination that would give them the opportunity to become civil servants. The Assembly has 60 positions open, but at least 1,000 people turned up to buy application forms.
Most new graduates try to find jobs with the government as they like the fact that such positions are permanent. But the government accepts only a small number of officials each year.
This year, almost 6,000 students graduated from the National University of Laos and many of them are struggling to find work.
An independent economist, Dr Mana Southichak, said the unemployment rate does not reflect the reality of the situation as the rate in cities is higher than that in rural areas.
Dr Leeber agreed that Laos has more unskilled workers than the country needs, but on the other hand there are insufficient skilled labourers to supply the needs of industry.
�We need more engineers in various sectors, especially the energy sector. And we still need skilled managers, notably in the service sector. One of the most important things is to encourage people to run a business and to push for greater growth of the business sector,� he added.
Economists say the business sector has not grown as anticipated. Most businesses are family-run and are classified as SMEs, and hire very few people. In the meantime, foreign investment in recent years has not created as many jobs for Lao people as was expected.
It is essential to improve the investment climate to draw large companies to Laos, which would provide more people with jobs. This means the process to approve business projects must be streamlined so that approval can be given more quickly.
It is also critical to create an environment where many people want to do business and produce goods for local consumption or for export to the whole Asean region.
Laos is now part of the Asean Economic Community, a market of over 600 million people, which should be of great interest to entrepreneurs around the world and encourage them to invest here.
