The vast majority of the unemployed waiting on Giang Vo, however, are not lazy and do express a genuine desire to find secure long-term employment. Life lasts an average of sixty years. Sleeping consumes 30 years and school takes up at least 16 years, leaving just 14 years to work and enjoy life. I must keep waiting on this street and watching life go by because when I die I do not want to look back and see myself as lazy. The fallout from the regional financial meltdown has employers across the country streamlining their businesses in order to survive the tough economic times ahead.
Redundant employees are usually the firts to go.
Adding to their difficulties, laid-off workers rarely have social security benefits or subsequent vocational training schemes and thus are stranded by the company they once toiled diligently for. Since Vietnam opened its borders with China, competition from Chinese tool producers left my factory with little choice but to lay me off. I have tried to get a new job in Hanoi for three years but with little luck. Many of the Giang Vo labourers used to be farmers who left their families to earn some extra money and security away from the land, tired of toiling long hours for little or no reward. I left farming because it was too insecure and my income varied with the season.