In the first half of the year 734,000 jobs were created, accounting for slightly less than half of the full year's target, officials from the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs said at a seminar on Tuesday. They said this included 39,000 overseas jobs.

People seek job opportunities at the Employment and Vocational Training Consultation Day in early April in Da Nang.

The number of labour disputes and strikes had fallen sharply. Only 179 strikes were reported in the first five months compared to 349 in the same period last year.

The officials also touched upon other issues.

There had been 54 deaths in 35 workplace accidents this year.

By the end of last year poor people accounted for 11.76 percent of the population, a decrease of 2.44 percentage points.

Near-poor households accounted for 6.98 percent, 0.51 percent lower than in the same period last year.

Vocational training was continued to create skilled workers who could meet the demand in key industries.

But only 525,000 people had enrolled in vocational schools, or 28 percent of the year's target. The ministry paid allowances worth more than VND13 trillion ($621 million) to around 1.5 million people who had contributed to the revolution.