Taiwan employs most overseas Vietnamese labor

Taiwan last year employed more than 50 percent of all Vietnamese workers who left for overseas jobs, statistics compiled by Vietnamese labor authorities showed yesterday.

According to the statistics, more than 60,000 Vietnamese nationals came to Taiwan to work last year, making up about 57 percent of the total Vietnamese workers who landed a job overseas for the whole year.

The number of Vietnamese workers coming to Taiwan also hit a 14-year-high, the data indicated.

The Vietnamese government said that as Taiwan has been gearing up to push through policies aimed at boosting its economy, demand for workers has been on the rise. Vietnam seized the opportunity to train workers to help them find jobs in Taiwan.

In contrast to Vietnam’s move to send workers to Taiwan, the number of Thai workers coming to Taiwan has fallen, while Indonesia and the Philippines tended not to encourage workers to come to Taiwan, the Vietnamese authorities said.

Last year, Vietnam saw a total of 105,000 workers depart for work overseas, surpassing a goal set by the Vietnamese government of sending 90,000 workers abroad in the year, the data showed.

After Taiwan, Japan ranked as the second-largest recipient of Vietnamese workers last year, employing almost 20,000 workers. It was followed by South Korea with 7,000 Vietnamese workers, Malaysia with 5,000 workers, Saudi Arabia with 4,000, and Qatar with 1,000, the statistics indicated.

The Vietnamese labor authorities said that based on the numbers, Japan has the potential to employ more Vietnamese workers.

However, market analysts said that insufficient language skills and technological know-how of Vietnamese workers could be barriers for them to secure jobs overseas.

Analysts said that as some Vietnamese workers have overstayed their work visas or fled their foreign employers, these poor records are also expected to make them it harder for them to get hired abroad.