Rangoon firms into lay-off; job seekers mount-MIZZIMA

http://www.mizzima.com/news/inside-burma/1404-rangoon-firms-into-lay-off-job-seekers-mount.html

by The The
Thursday, 04 December 2008 10:28

New Delhi (Mizzima) – Over the past three months reduction and lay-off of staff members have been on in Rangoon as companies struggle to survive the impact of the global financial meltdown, resulting in job seekers mounting, an employment agency in Rangoon said.

With the decline in business, companies have been forced to cut their staff strength and recruitment has become more competitive, with most firms seeking skilled and experienced workers. This has led to the rise in the number of unemployed educated youths in the Burmese capital, a Rangoon based well-known agency said.



"In earlier months, of a total of 100 applicants, at least 50 would be employed. But now, we have about 7,000 applicants seeking jobs, and we are only able to find placement for about 25 per cent," the Chief Executive Officer of the agency told Mizzima.

He, who wished to be identified as Aung Myint, said earlier the job market for fresh graduates and skilled labourers was much better as companies and firms were willing to recruit freshers on cheap pay packets.

But, he said, the situation is changing fast as companies are cutting costs and managing with a minimum number of employees.

Adding to the problems at home, several Burmese migrant workers from neighbouring Southeast Asian countries have made a desperate return home after being laid-off as a consequence of the global financial crisis faced by companies. This has added to the number of job-seekers in Rangoon, according to Aung Myint.

A managing director of a domestic employment agency in Rangoon told Mizzima that the prospect of finding jobs for returnees is grim as the situation at home and abroad are different.

However, contrary to the claims of the employment agencies, Burma's Prime Minister Thein Sein said, the country can offer jobs to even up to 100,000 returnees as the country's various sectors including the fishery and agriculture, still need a lot of work force.

Thein Sein was quoted by the government-owned newspaper, the New Light of Myanmar, as saying that the government could create jobs for all the returnees.

But the managing director of the Rangoon-based agency said, differences in nature of the business and types of business would be one area that could bar returnees from getting absorbed in the domestic job market.

"It is impossible for an IT expert to re-start working on paddy fields or to work as a fisherman. What I mean is the differences between the business status and types of business. So, it is difficult for returnees to be easily employed," he said.

A youth, who recently returned from Singapore, after being sacked by a construction company as part of the firm's lay-off process, said he is unable to find a suitable job.

The youth, who holds a diploma from Burma's Government Technological Institute, said in desperation that the only option would be to seek a way out again to go to another country in search of a job.

"What will I do in Burma? I can only hope to go out again to some other country," the youth said.