VN young workforce underutilised
Forty-three per cent of the country’s young labour workforce is still underutilised, while low quality employment remains a strong hindrance to the country’s productive transformation. This is a result of the School-to-work Transition Survey conducted by the General Statistics Office with the support of the ...
Vietnam's declining birthrate spells end of two-child policy
Move may make little difference as rising expenses hinder bigger families. The Vietnamese government is reversing its decadeslong policy in a bid to counter the country’s aging population. Earlier this month the country’s health ministry began showing a negative view toward its de facto two-child ...
Youth, women key to economic growth
To join the “Asian Tiger” economies of the neighbouring countries, Myanmar must invest more in its youth, the UN Population Fund has said following a new examination of demographic trends from the 2014 census. “A unique window of opportunity opens when there are more people ...
Boom built on ‘slavery’
The use of debt bondage to trap workers in “modern day slavery” is widespread in many of Cambodia’s brick-making factories, indicates research by rights group Licadho, whose findings suggest the Kingdom’s recent building boom is built on the illegal practice. In a report released on ...
Isolated and lacking labor rights, housemaids toil in silence

Khin Htar Kyu was in her late teens when she left her village in Irrawaddy Division’s Wakema Township with her younger sister to find work in Yangon to help her indebted family. Across Myanmar, there are tens of thousands of girls like Khin Htar Kyu who leave ...
In the Mekong Delta poorest homes, education takes a back seat

Poverty and a lack of parental support have forced many children in the Mekong Delta to drop out of school and face a very high risk of falling deeper into poverty. Many children in An Giang Province sell lottery tickets or earn money from casual, low-pay ...
US report lauds Thai efforts to combat child labour

The US Department of Labour has upgraded Thailand to the “significant advancement” category for child labour after efforts in recent years have made progress in thwarting the harmful practice. The department on 30 September released a report entitled Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labour 2014, which ...