HANOI, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's labor ministry is outlining a new plan to send more skilled workers abroad in the next few years as the number of unemployed Vietnamese has surpassed the million mark.

According to Doan Mau Nghiep, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalid, and Social Affairs (MoLISA), the plan will focus on sending engineers to South Korea, health workers to Japan and Germany as well as also exploring new markets like Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Israel.

"The MoLISA wants to find solutions for well-trained workers, who have graduated from universities or colleges but can't find jobs," Nghiep said on local VNExpress online newspaper on Thursday.

"However, we have to assess whether the quality of our labor force meet the requirements of recipient countries," said the official.

Official statistics showed that Vietnam had around 1.1 million unemployed workers, accounting for 2.3 percent of the workforce. Around one third of them were college graduates.

Local experts have said that the quality of Vietnamese labor force is generally low compared to Asian peers.

Earlier, Vietnam had set a target of sending 105,000 workers abroad in 2017. Last year was the third consecutive year that Vietnam has sent more than 100,000 workers overseas.