Average monthly salary of a Vietnamese university graduate was 2.5 times higher than that of a local unskilled worker in 2005, local newspaper Vietnam News reported Friday.

According to a survey by the country's Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, a university graduate, last year, received monthly salary of roughly 2.5 million Vietnamese dong ( VND) (157 U.S. dollars) on average compared with over one million VND (62.9 dollars) got by unskilled laborers.

Meanwhile, a college graduate and an employee with vocational training got monthly salaries of over 1.7 million VND (107 dollars) and more than 1.4 million VND (88 dollars) respectively.

The survey also shows that managers in state-owned enterprises and foreign-invested ones respectively received a salary three times and nine times higher than workers.

The survey was conducted among 5,000 employees who have worked for at least one year in 500 firms, including state-owned enterprises, private ones and foreign-invested ones nationwide, in the 2004-2005 period.