MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
CAN THO UNIVERSITY
--------------------------------

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DISSERTATION ABSTRACT
Major: Agricultural Economics
Code: 9620115

PHAM DUC THUAN

ASSESSMENT OF FACTORS AFFECTING THE
EMPLOYMENT NEEDS OF RURAL LABORERS
IN CAN THO CITY

Can Tho, 2018


THE PROJECT HAS COMPLETED
IN CAN THO UNIVERSITY

Instructor: Assoc. Prof., Ph.D: Duong Ngoc Thanh

The dissertation is defended to University’s Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation
Examination Council
In: Hall …. Can Tho University
At: …. Hour …..Date….. Month….Year

Reviewer 1:
Reviewer 2:

Find more information about dissertation at:

INTRODUCTION
1.1 Reasons for selecting the topic
Labor and employment are always one of the most pressing issues in the world,
the concern of all humanity in general and each nation in particular. For each country,
job creation is the basic solution to maintaining political stability and economic
development. In addition, increasing population and urbanization have also led to a
decline in agricultural land, large family narrow house status quo, lack of employment,
which are avoidable. This status quo has been a barrier to the socio-economic
development of each locality and country. The current status quo of labor resources in
the city has not met the need for labor recruitment of enterprises. The need for
recruitment of skilled and highly qualified laborers is increasing. There is a difference
in recruitment needs for sex between male and female laborers, between urban and
rural areas.
In the rural areas in particular and the laborer of the whole city in general, job
creation for laborers is an urgent issue for local government and each level of the city.
Labor and employment pressures are increasing. Employment need for rural laborers
is a current issue. Actually, there are no specific researches on the employment of rural
laborers in the Mekong Delta. The above status quo were chosen for the research topic:
“Assessment of factors affecting the employment needs of rural laborers in Can Tho
City”.
1.2 Research objectives
1.2.1 Overall objective
On the basis research, assessment of factors affecting the employment needs for
rural laborers offers proposals for solutions to meet the employment need to rural
laborers. Thereby, it contributes to increase income in accordance with local socioeconomic conditions for rural laborers in the future.
1.2.2 Specific objective
(1) Assessment of the status quo of vocational training and employment of rural
laborers (off-farm laborers and non-farm laborers) in Can Tho City;
(2) Determination and assessment of factors affecting the employment needs of
rural laborers (off-farm laborers and non-farm laborers) in Can Tho City;

Chapter 2
OVERVIEW OF REFERENCE
2.1 The concept
2.1.1 Employment needs
Employment needs are the capabilities of the laborers themselves to adapt to the
working environment in order to satisfy their desires for employment or to seek a work
for the employees themselves.
2.1.2 Definition of research subjects
On-Farm is rural laborers who have agricultural land and work on their land
(referred to as on-farm).
Off-farm is rural laborers who work in field of agricultural production, do not
directly produce agriculture on their own land, and are hired to work on other’s land.
Non-farm is rural laborers who work in field of non-agricultural (such as industry,
construction, service, and trade), indirect production in field of agriculture (referred to
as non-farm).

2


2.2 Research models for employment search
Research of theories: Family Theory of Howard N. Barnum (1978), Labor supply
of Orazio Attanasio (2004), Theories of farmer hysterical of Frank Ellis (1993),
Theories of job creation for employees of Tuan Xuan Cau and Mai Quoc Khanh (2008),
Choosing the trio - working for money, working at home and rest of Ta Duc Khanh
(2009).
2.3 Experimental results
Inheriting the research: Junior Davis (2006), Diversification of employment and
other beneficial activities of rural famers; Wayne Howard, Michael Swidinsky (2000),
the impacts on the employment of laborers on-farm; Bamlaku A. Alemu, EA Nuppenau
and H. Boland (2008), the access to analytical models of agricultural households in the



results, collecting researches for factor group and factors affecting employment need
of rural laborers in Can Tho City and creating research framework with 07 factor
groups.
For factor research model: inherit the development of factor groups under (i)
of the research framework and researches for factor model that were mentioned by the
previous authors, specially research model by Ho Thi Dieu Anh (2015) with 3 factor
groups affecting self-employment of rural laborer in Nghe An Provinces as approach,
inheritance and building analysis model for dissertation.
For the model of regression research: the result of regression models was
analyzed, in which the factors affecting the vocational training and employment of rural
laborer such as age, sex, education background , quantity of member in family, income,
etc. that are the basis of inheritance and creation to the analysis method of the
dissertation. Thereby, Research approach by Ho Thi Dieu Anh (2015), Binary Logistic
regression analysis that used binary dependent variables to estimate the probability of
events occurrence with the information of the independent variable ( 0 = no selfemployment; 1 = non-farm self-employment )
Therefore, research of dissertation analyzes carefully employment need of rural
labors (laborers’ desire) for each laborer, off-farm laborer and non-farm laborer. This
is the additional dissertation for previous research, including the following contents:
(1) Researching the capacity, vocational training, employment of rural laborers
(off-farm laborers and non-farm laborers).
(2) Researching the independent factors affecting the employment need of rural
laborers (off-farm laborers and non-farm laborers).
(3) Focusing on solutions that meet the demand for rural laborers in the future.
Chapter 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1. Approach
The approach of the dissertation is to inherit the research of the model on research

- Number of dependent people
- Profit (accumulated)
- Unemployment

INTERNAL FACTORS

EMPLOYMENT
1. Group of the socio-economic condition
change
- Economic restructuring
- Labor restructuring
- Education investment
2. Group of business
- Recruitment business
- Salary paid to laborers
- The efficiency of vocational training programs
3. Group of local policies
- Vocational training
- Employment
- Loan
- Employment information
4. Group of Working conditions
- Workplace
- Productive land
- Labor safety

NEEDS

EXTERNAL FACTORS


argument to propose the solutions to meet the employment needs of on-farm labor in
the coming time.
Based on this, the analytical research model used Cronbach's Alpha reliable
coefficient analysis using the Likert scale according to the scale theory of AH Maslow's
(1932), with five levels of opinion on the satisfaction of rural laborers regarding
employment needs: 1 = Disagree Strongly; 2 = Disagree Moderately; 3 = Disagree
Slightly; 4 = Agree; 5 = Agree Strongly.
3.6.2 Analysis of the factors affecting the employment needs of rural laborers
For the approach of the regression analysis model, to measure the factors having
employment needs according to the model of Wayne Howard, Michael Swidinsky
(2000), and to measure the factors affecting employment needs of the rural laborers,
use the analysis models of agricultural households in the agricultural zones in Etiopia
of Bamlaku A. Alemu, E-A Nuppenau and H. Boland (2008), including 05 main
independent variables and 15 minor independent variables; Richard J. Smith and
Richard W. Blundell (1986) Household income factor affecting employment; Agnes
C. Rola and Ian Coxhead (2003), David Stifel (2010) the analysis of the factors
affecting employment of the rural laborers in agricultural and non-agricultural fields.
6


In the research approach of Ho Thi Dieu Anh (2015), Binary Logistic regression
analysis use binary dependent variables to estimate the probability of event occurrence
(0= non-self-employment, 1= non-farm self-employment), 13 independent variables
were found.
k

k

j



Pi
1−Pi

)

is the log odds ratio, this ratio is a linear function of the

explanatory variables X and Dj.
For P (Y = 1) = P0: Probability in case the laborers have employment needs (in
terms of the employment needs in on-farm, off-farm, and non-farm fields);
P (Y = 0) = 1-P0: Probability in case the laborers do not have employment needs
(in terms of the employment needs in on-farm, off-farm, and non-farm fields);
k

k

j

j

P0
) = α0 + ∑ βi X i + ∑ γj Dj + ui
Ln (
1 − P0

Next, Cross-Tabulation is analyzed to identify and analyze the factors affecting
the employment needs of rural laborers according to each subject. According to
Wagner A. Kamakura and Michel Wedel (1997), this analysis is used to test whether
the two factors have any relationship in general, which is the type of independent test.

apprehension of some individuals, the inability of the poor to attend long-term training
course; (2) the off-farm laborers supposed that they are not able to get a job after
vocational training; (3) the non-farm laborers believed that it was due to the lack of
practical equipment, overly focusing on theory, inadequate training time, inability to get
a job after vocational training.
In addition, the local authorities have not surveyed the labor needs at the locality
and the ability to satisfy of the rural laborers; the vocational training of the locality is
also passive (training based on the planned targets); the number and level of rural labors
are not suitable (the training list has sufficient number of participants but the specific
classes are not arranged according to level); there is not enough information on
vocational training in the localities (information is only provided on the notice board
of the commune or ward).
4.2 Employment situation of rural laborers
According to the survey data on the employment situation, the percentage of the
employed laborers in rural areas is 49.79%. The majority of on-farm laborers
developing farming are having a stable job. Because of having a lot of experience in
farming and creating income for themselves and their families, they develop their
family’s traditional production and when they have free time, they change to some
other jobs according to their abilities.
As for the occupation of the rural laborers, the number of the off-farm laborers
accounts for a low rate and the off-farm laborers developing farming are planning to
change their job, seeking and waiting for a new job. Due to the seasonality of the offfarm job, agricultural leisure time, and landlessness, the laborers have to find another
job to increase their income.
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As for non-farm labor, the service sector in the non-farm areas is mainly
developed by the well-off households (trading in fertilizers, retailing at home) or the
service sectors related to agriculture – fishery. Besides, there is a not-so-small number
of individuals working as housewives and a small number working as non-farm

manual laborers working seasonally. As most rural off-farm laborers were old (with
34.5% aging from 51-60), they still had the need to work as off-farm laborers in
agricultural production. In addition, because young laborers mostly worked for
enterprises or in industrial parks, off-farm laborers were able to received higher income
and remained employed throughout the season, especially during the production and
harvesting periods when there was a high demand for off-farm laborers (for rice
harvesting, pesticide spraying, tillage, fertilizing, water-pumping, etc.). The average
income of the off-farm laborer group was approximately over 2 million dongs/month
but mostly in the main production season. The income was lower when the production
season was over.
As for non-farm laborers, the need to find and change to new jobs accounted for
87.1%. At present and in the near future, the process of industrialization and
urbanization continues to develop strongly, together with the inevitably of labor
9


restructuring from agriculture to non-agricultural sectors (industry, construction,
trading, and service). As a result, the current demand for vocational training is nonagriculture oriented and the employment need will be higher including jobs in trading
- service (small business, cell phone repair, makeup, hairdressing, household sewing,
cooking, restaurant staff, etc.); jobs in industry sector (car repair, motorcycle repair,
welding, lathing, agricultural and industrial machine repair, electronics, civil
electricity, refrigeration, industrial electrical repairs, automobile driving, etc.); jobs in
cottage industry and handicrafts (weaving from hyacinth, plastic, making conical leaf
hat, mat weaving, high-grade handicrafts); jobs in construction and other jobs
(carpentry, art carpentry, interior decoration, informatics, marketing and sales). The
primary reasons for the employment needs of non-farm laborers were low current
income (14.8%), the need to find a more stable job (13.9%), due to the current
hardships in family life (11.9%), and the need to diversify income sources for the
family (13.7%).
The reasons for no need of jobs amongst on-farm laborers were that they already



4.3 Analysis of factors affecting the employment needs of rural laborers (EFA)
The Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) technique was used to analyze the
factors affecting the employment needs of rural laborers, from the assessment of the
local economic conditions and policies affecting employment of rural laborers, with
research subjects: on-farm laborer, off-farm laborer, and non-farm laborer.
The used scale was as follows:
1= Strongly disagree; 2= Disagree; 3= Slightly agree;
4= Agree; 5= Strongly agree
The variables involved in factor analysis included:
X1 = Age
X2 = Sex
X3 = Health status
X4 = Academic level
X5 = Professional level
X6 = Working experience
X7 = Number of dependents
X8 = Profit
X9 = Unemployment
X10 = Structural change in economy
X11 = Structural change in labor force

X12 = Investment in education
X13 = Laborer recruitment
X14 = Salary paid to laborers
X15 = Effectiveness of vocational
training programs
X16 = Vocational training
X17 = Employment

and directly working on their land;
- The on-farm laborers were healthy (95% or more), a few were old, sick and
could not work, to handle manual work.
- Educational and professional level: Most of the on-farm laborers’ education
levels were primary and secondary, so the work of on-farm laborers was mostly on
their lands, and they did not have needs to improve their level.
- With the experience of working in rural areas, on-farm laborers (over 10 years
of experience, accounting for 65.2%) were mainly people in rural areas with land
resources, because they could still generate income, they have sticked to the
agricultural production.
- The dependents were mainly people who have not yet reached the working age
and the weak elders, accounting for a low proportion in the family of laborers. This
was one of the burdens for the main laborer in the household.
- The source of income was the motivation for the laborers to seek employment
(with the needs for jobs) to earn more, and the laborers would continue to invest more
in agricultural production (according to the survey results, the average income of
laborers in the researched area was 1-3 million VND/month).
- Most of the on-farm laborers were having a job and planned to change (30.5%),
so they also had the need to work during their free time.
- The structural change in economy and labor force affecting the change in
employment of on-farm laborers was mainly the change in occupation in accordance
with individual capacity and skills (12.6%), and investment in agricultural production
(80.3%).
- Policies on investment in education, vocational training, employment, and
loans created conditions for on-farm laborers to find jobs more easily, increase their
incomes and improve their lives.
In summary, the above-mentioned internal and external factors affected the
employment and income of on-farm laborers in rural areas, most of whom worked in
agriculture on their own land, near their houses, or in the hamlet, which was the
condition for laborers to use their land resources and experience effectively,

ineffective, accounting for 20.7% of the total, of which the majority of the agricultural
laborers claimed that they were unable to find a job after training.
- Based on the observation results, in terms of the nature of the work, the
laborers chose different places of work, the off-farm laborers were concentrated in the
area near their houses (or in the commune) to work, which minimized their expenses
on daily travel and activities.
In summary, most of the off-farm laborers had no land for production of a few
of land, so they had a lot of idle time to participate in agricultural production based on
health, age, experience in agricultural production, production conditions, and so on, to
have income to solve the necessary expenses in daily life.
 For non-farm laborers
- In the non-farm labor force, the age group of 31-50 years old accounted for a
higher proportion (31.4%) than other age groups, as the majority of laborers were
senior laborers in business facilities or companies or employed in non-farm sectors.
The non-farm laborers had the stable income.
- Non-farm female laborers were concentrated in the localities (small traders,
hat maker, water hyacinth – knitting workers, hairdressers, workers, and so on), while
non-farm male laborers had jobs as follows: workers, ironworkers, bricklayers, porters,
traders, etc. Through surveys, the majority of the young workforce was concentrated
in the non-farm sector,

13


- Non-farm laborers also had low academic levels, so in the future, they would
have the need to improve their qualifications to seek jobs with a stable income.
According to the survey, local non-farm laborers had a very low academic level (grade
1: 28%, grade 2: 33.5% and grade 3: 23%) in comparison with the needs of recruitment
of enterprises having high technological applications.
- Main occupations of non-farm laborers were small traders, traders of

In summary, there were 09 internal factors and 12 external factors affecting the
needs for non-farm employment in the region; the factor of land for production did not
affect non-farm laborer because the non-farm laborers had needs for employment
mostly in facilities, enterprises, industrial zones and industrial parks in the locality.
14


These enterprises attracted the majority of laborers, had many policies to attract
laborers, working conditions, and so on, to create jobs and increase income for laborers.
4.4 Assessment of factors affecting employment needs of rural laborers (Binary
Logistic analysis)
Dependent variable Y – Employment needs of rural laborers (with research
subjects: on-farm laborers, off-farm laborers and non-farm laborers) had 2 values:
Y = 1: having employment needs (seeking/ changing to new jobs, etc.);
Y =0 : having no employment needs (having stable jobs – having no willings to
change jobs)
Independent variables in the model included:

X1 = Age (in working age)

X8 = Land for production (1=having land;
0=having no land)
F1 = Group of basic biological variables

X2 = Sex (0=female; 1=male)
X3 = Health status (0=unable to work;
F2 = Group of capability
1=healthy)
X4 = Employment (0=employed;
1=unemployed)

Factors affecting the employment needs (statistically significant independent
variables) included: X1 = Age, X4 = Unemployment, X6 = Number of dependents, F1
= Group of basic biological variables, F2 = Group of capabilities and F3 = Group of
livelihoods; in which, F2 = Group of capabilities (with 03 factors: academic level,
professional level, working experience): the variables of group of capabilities were
negative, indicating that if the off-farm laborers’ academic and professional levels were
low, they would have higher employment needs, because the off-farm jobs did not
require qualifications, but only required manual laborers with good health to handle the
hired work. The results showed that off-farm laborers with low academic level (even
illiterate) had the working age of 45-60 years, had experience in off-farm work in
agricultural production, had few lands for production (even have no land for
production) and did not want to change to non-farm occupations.

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Table 4.1: Results of the regression analysis of employment needs of rural laborers in Can Tho city
On-farm (n=210)
Off-farm (n=110)
Items
B
Wald
Sig.
B
Wald
Sig.

Non-farm (n=210)
B
Wald

-0,645

0,357

0,525

-0,637

1,385

0,239

X3= Health status

0,237

0,867

0,350

1,476

1,264

0,207

0,509

0,738


0,157

0,711

2,78

6,435

0,011

X6= Number of dependents

0,431

1,879

0,182

2,371

6,679

0,007

0,966

8,332

0,004


1,663

0,216

-1,722

2,523

0,112

F1= Group of basic biological variables

2,526

7,527

0,000

2,348

2,726

0,068

-0,43

0,069

0,792


3,328

0,068

-1,196

2.905

0,084

F4= Group of socio-economic and political
conditions

2,953

3,984

0,042

-2,219

0,061

0,805

0,229

5.363

0,024


-6,196 8,387
0,000 -7,421 12,257 0,000
Source: Synthesized and processed from 530 observations in Can Tho city, 2015-2016.

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 For non-farm laborers
The factors affecting the job demand (the statistically significant independent
variables) included: X1= Age, X5 = Academic and professional level, X4 =
Unemployment, X6 = Number of dependents, F2= Group of capability, F3= Group of
livelihoods and F4= Group of socio-economic and political conditions; in which, there
were 02 negative values:
- X1= Age: the Age variable had negative value, indicating the age of non-farm
laborers without employment needs, reflecting that the older the laborers were, the
lower the chance of finding a job they had. The result showed that the employment
needs of non-farm laborers were mostly amongst younger laborers because of higher
incomes; the older they were, the more difficulties they had to face due to health
problems, which made it hard to secure their jobs. However, some other jobs
(housewife, babysitter) also indirectly helped the non-farm laborers in the family to
reduce the cost in hard times.
- F3= Group of livelihoods (including 03 factors: number of dependents, profit,
unemployment): the variables in the group of livelihoods showed negative values,
indicating that even if the non-farm laborers had few dependents (or no dependent),
low profit, or were not unemployed, they still had employment needs to ensure their
life, as most non-farm laborers did not have their own land for production.
In conclusion, through the above-analyzed results, there was an increasing trend
in the employment needs of the rural laborers in rural areas as there were developments
in the socio-economic conditions in rural areas such as the transfer of plant and animal

74
65,5
210
23,5
12
10,6
110
43,9
27
23,9
210
417 100,0
113 100,0
530
Source: Synthesized and processed from the investigation results of 530 observations in Can
Tho City, 2015 - 2016.

With the Chi-squared test result χ2 = 40,31 and the difference of 1%, it is
indicated that there were differences in the employment needs of the rural laborers,
between the on-farm laborers, off-farm laborer, and non-farm laborers in Can Tho city,

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in other words, the hypothesis that there was no difference in the employment needs of
the rural laborers was rejected.
 For on-farm laborers: On-farm laborers had employment needs and wanted
to find a regular job (as they worked on farm seasonally and had plenty of spare time),
so they sought for the jobs that suit their capability and agricultural production
experiences to earn more income from agricultural production based on the available

agricultural production models.
- Off-farm laborers should participate in the cooperation groups, cooperatives.
- Performing loan support programs for laborers.

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 Essential solutions for non-farm laborers
- Restructuring the industry sector;
- Developing medium and small enterprises;
- Creating jobs for rural laborers through the policies for unemployment
solutions;
- Creating jobs for rural laborers through laborer export.
In summary, based on the proposed solutions for each of the above-mentioned
laborers, the dissertation recommends leaders of the city, levels, sectors and localities
concerned to focus on some important solutions to contribute to promoting agricultural
economic development and solving the issues on labor and employment, supporting
the socio-economic development of the locality in particular and the city in general to
develop synchronously.
- Promoting economic restructuring (industry, agriculture, and rural areas), of
which: collective economic development with cooperatives as the cores;
- Promoting vocational training for laborers in rural areas, focusing on
vocational training for laborers for exports;
- Developing of household economy, farm models, and labor-intensive
agricultural production models;
- Performing solutions to attract investment, focusing on developing medium
and small enterprises;
- Applying job policies, creating jobs for rural laborers;
- Expanding the scope of the borrowers to create jobs for them.
Chapter 5

needs of the laborers. In terms of off-farm and non-farm laborers, the factors affecting
the employment needs of the laborers included academic levels, professional level,
work experience and the number of dependents.
- In the near future, the good solutions for good job creation and vocational
training in order to help meet the employment needs of the rural laborers are as follows:
(1) For on-farm laborers: accelerate the restructuring of agricultural and rural economy;
developing household economy; developing collective economy with cooperatives as
the cores; encouraging vocational training for rural laborers. (2) For non-farm laborers:
restructuring the industry sector; developing medium and small enterprises; creating
jobs for rural laborers through employment policies; creating jobs for rural laborers
through labor export. (3) vocational training of using machinery in agricultural
production (using tractors, seed drill, transplanters, harvesters), leaders of local
authorities should encourage the development of farm models and labor-intensive
agricultural production, actively participating in cooperative groups and cooperatives
for agricultural production services such as transplanting, fertilizing, using pesticides,
tillage, harvesting (rice, vegetables, cane, beans, …)
5.2 Recommendations
- In order to have comprehensive solutions to create jobs for the city's labor
force and overcome the constraints mentioned by the research, it is essential to study
the labor supply-demand market for each economy, each economic region, each
locality, in which, the influences of the process of international integration, the
academic levels of the laborers, the demand for labor recruitment of foreign investors,
the seasonal nature of employment, and the impact of the policies of the Central
Government and the locality on laborers should be taken into consideration.
- Leaders of the city and all levels, sectors and the localities should annually
survey and assess the vocational training work and job creation in order to have a
foundation for allocating corresponding funds and other resources, implementing
programs and projects to support the creation of jobs for rural laborers; in particular, it
is necessary to focus on investing and developing vocational training institution
network, generating conditions for improving the quality of vocational training, and