In the first 11 months of 2022, Hanoi created jobs for more than 195,000 people, 24% higher than the previous year, according to the city’s Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.

An employer and a job seeker are attending a recent mobile job fair in Hanoi's Tay Ho District. Photo: Tran Oanh/ The Hanoi Times

This result was attributed to the city’s solutions to develop the labor market in the new normal, according to Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Quoc Khanh. 

In November, the city provided jobs for more than 1,600 workers from the city’s fund entrusted through the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies. More than 9,100 workers found jobs via other channels, many were sent abroad under fixed-term contracts, and 1,654 people were recruited through the job exchange system, the leader of the municipal department added.

In the last month of the year, the city continues to roll out many solutions to fulfill the target of helping 160,000 workers find jobs for the whole year and keep the urban unemployment rate below 4%, he said.

Khanh added Hanoi would reduce the time to handle administrative procedures, hold vocational training, find jobs for unemployed people, and deploy policies to provide loans for job creation, labor export, production development, restoration, and development of traditional handicraft industries.

Labor market by year-end

There is a lack of laborers in the manufacturing industry. Photo: Pham Hung/ The Hanoi Times

The labor market has witnessed both underemployment and unemployment [due to a sharp decline in export orders from several European markets and the US] in some areas nationwide. 

Preliminary reports from localities showed the underemployment rate of unskilled workers accounted for 72.8% and that of skilled people was 27.2%, according to the third quarter’s report of the General Statistics Office (GSO).

Among the localities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City had the highest labor shortages due to underemployment. The two cities need to hire 89,600 more workers, including 41,100 unskilled and 48,500 qualified, in the year-end period.

In addition, there was a labor shortage in other cities of Danang and Haiphong and provinces including Bac Giang, Bac Ninh, Hung Yen, Thai Binh, Ha Nam, Ninh Binh, Nghe An, Binh Phuoc, Dong Nai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Dong Thap, and Hau Giang.

Of the total of 511,000 underemployed, the most significant shortage rate is in the textile and apparel industry, with 45.6%, another in leather and footwear, with 11%, and in the fields of electronic products and computers, with 8%.

This year, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs predicted a shortage of almost 1.3 million workers in Vietnam, an increase of almost 20% over the previous year. The labor shortage is said to be even more severe during the economic recovery.

Demand for hiring is still high as manufacturing enterprises have good feelings about their production and business prospects.

A recent GSO survey showed that 48.7% of manufacturing companies expect a better result in the fourth quarter of 2022. As many as 33.9% of companies said the business production situation would be stable, and 17.4% said it would be more difficult.

The non-state sector was the most optimistic, with 83.6% of companies forecasting a better business situation and expecting it to be stable in the last quarter of the year compared to the previous quarter.

The rates for foreign-invested and state-owned companies were 80.9% and 79.1%, respectively, the survey noted.