The teleconference to develop a flexible, modern, sustainable and integrated labor market

On the morning of August 20, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired a teleconference with localities on developing a flexible, modern, sustainable and integrated labor market. At the provincial destination, the conference drew the attendance of the Deputy Party Secretary, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Tran Quoc Van and leaders of a number of relevant departments and branches.

Delegates attend the conference at the Hung Yen bridge point

According to a report of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, Vietnam's labor market in the first 7 months of 2022 has been still negatively affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, but the extent of the impact has been greatly reduced. Specifically, in the first quarter of 2022, 16.9 million people aged 15 and over have been affected (reduced by 7.8 million workers as compared to the fourth quarter of 2021), by the second quarter, only 8 million people have been negatively influenced (decreased by 8.9 million as compared to the previous quarter and decreased by 4.8 million as compared to the same period last year). The rate of unemployed workers in the total number of affected employees has also decreased sharply as compared to previous quarters, the number of unemployed workers in the second quarter is 0.4 million people (accounting for 5.3%); 0.5 million people can't find a job; 2.2 million people have temporarily suspend their production and business activities; 2.4 million people have their working hours cut; 6.5 million workers have lost their income. The labor force has increased rapidly, in the first 6 months of 2022 it is 51.4 million people, seeing an increase of more than 400 thousand people as compared to the same period last year. The average income of employees in the first 6 months of 2022 is 6.5 million VND, seeing an increase of 326 thousand VND (up 5.3%) as compared to the same period in 2021; the average monthly income of workers in urban areas is 1.43 times higher than that in rural areas. There is a huge difference in the quality of Vietnamese labor among regions. The percentage of trained workers and the ones with diploma and certificates is highest in the Red River Delta (36.96%); followed by the Southeast region (28.34%); Northern Midlands and Mountains (25.99%); the North Central and Central Coast regions (25.75%); the lowest is the Central Highlands (16.5%) and the Mekong River Delta (14.61%).

At the conference, local delegates exchanged and discussed; frankly recognized the problems that Vietnamese laborers are facing such as: the limitations in qualifications, and skills not meeting the requirements of the labor market; lack of a team of managers who are good at managing the labor market; the shortage of experts to forecast, analyze trends and propose effective measures on the labor market management... thereby proposing solutions to overcome the limitations of the labor market in the coming time.

Concluding the conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that in order to recover and develop the domestic labor market, localities should first perform well the prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic. In the coming time, the Prime Minister requested ministries, branches and localities to focus on directing, reviewing and completing synchronously legal documents and regulations related to the labor market; strongly develop the labor market, create sustainable jobs, use laborers effectively through programs and projects; ensure to meet the requirements in labor, production and business of enterprises and ready for the integration process of the country; promote vocational training for employees, popularize certificates and vocational skills according to international standards; focus on forecasting labor demand by industry, profession and field, especially the labor demand of foreign investors; focus on thoroughly solving the problem of local labor shortage; build a labor market management system and job exchange through online platforms, synchronize, connect and share with the databases on population, business registration, insurance./.

Source: Ngoc Hung