A worker gets free rice from a rice ATM set up during COVID-19 pandemic to support poor people and workers at Suoi Dau Industrial Zone in the central province of Khanh Hoa.

The shocking statistic came from Pham Quang Vinh, deputy director general of General Statistics Office (GSO) of Vietnam.

He was speaking at the launch of the latest quarterly Labour Force Survey which revealed 17.6 million people have had their incomes reduced.

Vinh said it was the service sector that was hit the hardest, with 72 per cent of people either losing their jobs or having their wages seriously cut.

Industrial production and construction saw 67.8 per cent of labourers in the sectors affected.

About 25.1 per cent of people working in agriculture, forestry and aquaculture said they were also affected by the pandemic.

Vu Thi Thu Thuy, director of Population and Labour Statistics Department under the GSO reported that the second quarter of this year saw a record low level of labour force in Vietnam – just 53.1 million people.

It shrank by 2.2 million compared to the previous quarter and by 2.4 million compared to the same period last year.

About 46.8 million people of working age joined the labour force, a decrease of 2.1 million people compared to the previous quarter and 2.2 million people compared to the same period last year.

Thuy added that in the second quarter of 2020, 51.8 million people in Vietnam found employment, marking a reduction of 2.4 million compared to that of the first quarter and a reduction of nearly 2.6 million compared to the same period last year.

“The reductions are the biggest in the last ten years,” Thuy said.

Nearly 1.3 million people of working age were out of work in the last quarter.

Unemployment rate was 2.73 per cent, 0.51 per cent higher than that of previous quarter and 0.57 per cent higher than that of the same period last year.

Unemployment in urban areas was 4.46 per cent – the highest rate for a single quarter in the last ten years.

This year is the first time when workers’ income in the second quarter has recorded a year-on-year decrease in the last five years. The average monthly income in this period was VND5.2 million, down by 5.1 per cent against the previous year.

Informal workers suffered worse than formal workers. Their monthly income dropped by 8.4 per cent and 4.7 per cent year on year respectively. The higher qualifications the workers hold, the lower their income reduced.

Valentina Barcucci, ILO Vietnam’s Labour Economist, said the report revealed an alarming picture of Vietnam’s labour market. In the second quarter of 2020, it suffered from a mix of elements.

The preventive social distancing period at the beginning of the quarter brought the virus under control quickly, with limited impact on the domestic market compared to what other countries have experienced.

“However, impacts are unavoidable due to the scale of the necessary measures adopted,” she added.

“On the other hand, lockdowns in other countries and border closures in the last quarter have had a strong blow on Vietnam’s economy and jobs.”

The pandemic has reduced economic activity in some sectors, such as service industry and construction, to unprecedented levels.

“As a result, we observe workers who have lost their jobs but are not looking for new jobs, probably because there are not many opportunities around,” Barcucci added.

Regarding the issue, the ILO Vietnam Director Chang-Hee Lee said he believed Vietnam was better positioned than most other countries in overcoming the economic and labour market challenges as it did with the public health crisis.

Stimulating the economy and jobs; supporting enterprises, employment and incomes; protecting workers in the workplace; and using social dialogue between government, workers and employers to find solutions are what Vietnam would need to persistently continue, he said.

“It’s time for the Government, employers and workers to unite together to develop and implement evidence-based policies and measures to help the country come out of this crisis even in a better shape than when it started,” he added.

GSO official Thuy said now was the time to speed up the implementation of Government’s bailout packages to affected people, business and economic sectors.

More tailor-made supporting packages should be studied, developed and implemented for vulnerable groups like women or non-skilled/low-skilled workers.

Thuy said that in the context when COVID-19 was still not under control, there was an increase in the number of labourers whose potential ability was not used.

“Government should have policies to encourage labour to improve their expertise/skills as well as assist employers to further train their employees,” she said, calling for more support for start-ups, innovations and technology applications.

GSO deputy director general Vinh said despite the fact COVID-19 was effectively under control in Vietnam, the pandemic still developed complicatedly around the world, resulting in negative impacts on the country, for example, to its trade, tourism and transportation.

“Among the impacts, it’s possibly that in the future, Vietnam’s enterprises may face the shortage of input materials, forcing them to downsize their productions and as the results, jobs would be cut,” he said.

He emphasised the importance of implementing bailout packages, disbursement of public investment and called on people to use Vietnamese products more and more as a way to strengthen domestic production.  

Covid-19 takes away 156,900 accommodation, catering jobs

The service sector has been heavily hit by Covid-19 with 72% of the workforce directly affected and up to 156,900 employees involved in accommodation and catering activities made redundant in quarter two.

According to the General Statistics Office, the number of people losing jobs saw a sharp increase last quarter, while incomes of employees in the field took a plunge.

In particular, incomes of accommodation and catering staff dropped by 18.3%, only after the sector of arts, recreation and entertainment (19.2%).

Many businesses said that while it was hard for them to employ new staff, they now have to lay many off as there are not many guests to serve.

Although many tourist sites have now been reopened, the number of guests is so limited that there are not enough jobs for hotel, resort and restaurant staff.

Phan Xuan Anh, owner of a resort in Hue and another one in Tien Giang, said that he has had to make half of the staff in Hue redundant.

According to Anh, occupancy rates in Hue are improving but are still not enough to have staff back to work. Things are better in Tien Giang as there are more staff resuming work.

“We hope that occupancy rates will rise so that staff can get back to work as they are still unable to find new jobs,” Anh said.

The situation is worse in localities which rely on international markets. For instance, as just a few hotels and resorts have resumed operation, a majority of employees could not have their jobs back.

Unemployment happens to not only low-level employees but also managerial-level ones, according to Hoang Van Vinh, chairman of the Nha Trang-Khanh Hoa Tourism Association. VNS/SGT

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