The survey questioned nearly 10,000 firms and more than 233,400 workers in the southern economic hub to assess the local labour quality and demand in the past three months.

Accordingly, industries and sectors experiencing significant labour cuts include wholesale, construction, real estate, automotive sales and repair, warehousing and transport support activities, retail, and rail-road-pipeline transport, among many others.

The primary forms of workforce reduction involve reduced working hours or alternating layoffs, with 801 enterprises or 61.85% of the respondents choosing this option. A total of 121 businesses or 9.34% opted for temporary layoffs with partial salary support for employees, while 122 others or 9.42% chose temporary layoffs without salary support. Permanent layoffs were selected by 251 employers or 19.38%, with 33 of them stating that they will offer cost support for those who lost jobs.

According to FALMI Director Nguyen Hoang Hieu, it is predicted that some companies, especially those operating in labour-intensive industries, will continue to face production and business difficulties in the remaining months of the year. A significant number of firms in export-processing zones and industrial parks and foreign-invested ones have reported that they have yet to receive new orders; therefore, they will continue to negotiate with employees for reduced working hours and alternating layoffs or temporary layoffs with partial salary support.

Earlier, the General Statistics Office said Vietnamese businesses and labour markets are negatively affected by a lower global GDP growth forecast that stemmed from weakened demand in developed economies and an expected slowdown in global trade./.VNA