The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs has proposed the Government either keep retirement age unchanged at 60 for men and 55 for women, or raise it to 62 for men and 58 for women.

A retirement age adjustment plan has been put forward several times in the law amending process but the National Assembly has not approved it.

In a document on draft amendments to the 2012 Labor Code, the ministry said the life expectancy of the Vietnamese has increased in recent years and that the gap between retirement age and life expectancy has widened.

Many retired people want to continue working as they are still healthy enough. Moreover, the nation’s population is shifting from a golden population to an aging one and in the future, the country will fall short of young labor.

More importantly, keeping the current retirement age unchanged would lead the social insurance fund to fall short in the not too distant future, the ministry said in the document.

A higher retirement age would help do away with discrimination between men and women in accordance with international conventions, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the convention of the International Labor Organization (ILO).

As adjusting up retirement age to 62 and 58 has got mixed reactions, the ministry suggested a gradual approach by adding three months to retirement age a year.

When the idea of revising up retirement age first came up, both employers and employees opposed it, saying it would leave negative impact on the labor market as young people would be deprived of job opportunities.

A report by the labor ministry said 1.2 million people of working age were jobless in the third quarter, an increase by 29,000 people against the same quarter last year. Among the unemployed, more than 450,000 have professional skills.

The draft amendments to the Labor Code will be submitted to the Government in January next year, and the National Assembly in April.

SGT