Female workers in a garment company in HCM City. VNA/VNS Photo Hồng Đạt

The average monthly income of employees in Việt Nam in the first quarter of this year rose 10 per cent compared to the same period last year but men are still earning more than women, data from the General Statistics Office (GSO) revealed.

Việt Nam's labour market continued to maintain its recovery momentum in Q1, said the GSO at a press conference held in Hà Nội on Thursday.

The number of employed people in the three-month period continued to rise year-on-year. The average monthly income of employees also increased while the unemployment and underemployment rates in the working age decreased, it said.

During the period, an employee earned an average of VNĐ7 million (US$296.6) a month, an increase of VNĐ640,000 year-on-year, Phạm Hoài Nam, Director of the Department of Population and Labour Statistics announced at the press conference. 

Also in this period, male workers’ average income per month was 1.36 times higher than that of females (VNĐ8 million compared to VNĐ5.9 million).

The gap between income in urban and rural areas is 1.41 times (VNĐ8.6 million in urban areas compared to VNĐ6.1 million in rural areas).

In the first quarter of this year, Việt Nam’s labour force grew to 52.2 million workers, up more than 1 million compared to the same period last year.

Among them, the employees in the services sector accounted for 39 per cent, the largest share, followed by the industry and construction sector (33.9 per cent), and the agriculture, forestry and fishery sectors (27.1 per cent).

People working in the service sector also enjoyed the highest income growth rate. Their average monthly income was VNĐ8.3 million, up 10.1 per cent while that of employees in the agriculture, forestry and fishery sector and the industry and construction sector increased 9.2 per cent and 9 per cent to VNĐ4.1 million and 7.9 million respectively.

The data also showed that the number of unemployed people of working age in the first three months of this year amounted to 1 million people, a decrease of 65,100 people year on year. The unemployment rate in the working age hit 2.25 per cent, down 0.21 percentage points year on year. 

The number of underemployed people of working age was 885,500 people, down 443,100 year-on-year. VNS