The bureau takes charge of seafarers' education and training, employment placement, management and further training (when seafarers are between ships).
While there is some divergence in the seafarers' characteristics in both countries, there is increasing convergence in linkages with the global maritime labour market.
Double book-keeping was reported by a considerable number of seafarers interviewed by both authors and their associates for their respective studies.
Most of the seafarers dependent on these agencies are seafarers who have been made redundant by state-owned shipping companies.
Even the peril to seafarers has been corroborated, in the sense that such a mirage is frequently followed by a storm.
The following details provide a rough sketch or landscape for the labour market entry of seafarers in both countries.
Over 19 per cent of serving seafarers' fathers were white-collar workers but only six per cent of students' fathers were in the same category.
Such a regime has effectively ended seafarers' dependency on shipping companies, the traditional 'work units', which were a most important hallmark of the planned economy.
