Prime Minister-elect Sam Rainsy: Unemployment in Cambodia

០២ មិថុនា ២០១៤ / 02 June 2014 - Unemployment in Cambodia
ក្នុងលិខិតនេះ ផ្ញើជូន លោក អគ្គនាយក នៃអង្គការ ពលកម្ម អន្តរជាតិ (ILO)។  ខ្ញុំ បានបញ្ជាក់ អំពី ស្ថានការណ៍ ការងារ នៅប្រទេសកម្ពុជា, ហើយ ពន្យល់គាត់ ថា,  ប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ ខ្មែរ ភាគច្រើន លើសលុប រកការងារធ្វើ ត្រឹមត្រូវ មិនបាន។

Phnom Penh, 2 June 2014

Mr. Guy Rider

Director-General
International Labor Organisation (ILO)
4 route des Morillons
CH-1211 Genève 22
Switzerland 
E-mail: ilo@ilo.org

Sir,

According to recent press reports (http://tinyurl.com/lrag3u7) the ILO has stated that, among the ten ASEAN nations, Cambodia showed the lowest unemployment rate of 0.3 per cent.

No figure could be more misleading.

It’s shocking to read such an assessment from the ILO and some other world organisations, including international financial institutions, which keep disseminating distorted bureaucratic statistics totally disconnected from the reality.

Cambodia’s incredibly low unemployment rate of 0.3% as computed by the ILO, would rank that country among the world’s best performers in terms of job creation leading to wealth abundance.

Actually, something is terribly wrong with such an assessment because, according to the World Bank, Cambodia is and remains one of the world’s poorest countries.

There is an obvious clash between the ILO figure implying a prosperous country with practically full employment and the economic and social realities in Cambodia where the vast majority of the population live in extreme poverty and appalling conditions.

The contradiction can largely be explained by the very definition of employment (and that of its opposite) as used by the bureaucratic staff of some world organisations: any person in Cambodia is considered as “employed” (or having a “job”) as long as he/she works for half an hour a week!

The following factors must also be taken into account to explain Cambodia’s fake and false full employment:

- Disguised unemployment is common in this country where family farming is predominant. Many grown-up children stay with their parents on a small family farm only because they have no other job opportunities. Overall productivity is very low but all the family members are considered as having a “job” as “farmer. “

- There is no legal minimum wage in this country. No legal minimum wage often means no work contract, which leads to human rights abuses and hides new forms of slavery as in the case of domestic workers and “employees” in small family businesses.

- In the very vast informal sector, countless people, in order just to survive, do odd or occasional activities that cannot be associated with any real jobs: beggars, scavengers, prostitutes, etc.

- Between 300,000 and 400,000 young Cambodians enter the job market every year while the number of jobs created annually must be comparatively so low (probably no more than 50,000) that the government has never dared publish any figure related to job creation. Government officials only acknowledge that youth unemployment is a “time bomb” given the demographics and the poor prospect for job creation.

- Because they can find no job in their country, tens of thousands of Cambodians leave Cambodia every year to look for employment in Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea, etc. There are currently over 500,000 Cambodians working in Thailand, many of them living illegally there in precarious conditions. Cambodians would not continue to leave Cambodia to seek jobs elsewhere, often at great risk, if there were really full or nearly full employment in their country.

I hope the above facts and figures will help the ILO and other international organisations to get a better view of the employment situation in Cambodia and to nuance their assessment on this very sensitive issue. More precisely, I hope they will attach more importance to the notions of real living conditions, real freedom of choice, decent job and human dignity.

Sincerely,

Sam Rainsy

Cambodia’s opposition leader
CNRP President

សម រង្ស៊ី / Sam Rainsy 

www.facebook.com/rainsy.sam.5