The labor market and employment are facing many difficulties and challenges.

According to Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have an impact as the number of virus infections has increased again recently. The labor markets of countries face many difficulties, challenges and risks affecting many industries and fields.

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO) World Employment and Social Outlook 2023 Trends report, most countries will not be able to fully recover to pre-pandemic levels in 2023, with global employment forecast to grow by only 1%, a significant decrease compared to the 2.3% employment growth rate in 2022.

In the first 4 months of the year, the whole country had 49,900 newly registered enterprises with a total registered workforce of nearly 331,400 people (an increase of 0.6% in the number of enterprises, a decrease of 4.8% in the number of employees compared to the same period last year). The number of enterprises that had to temporarily suspend business for a period of time was 49,900 enterprises (equal to the number of newly established enterprises), an increase of 21.8% compared to the same period last year.

The labor force aged 15 and over in the first quarter of 2023 reached 52.2 million people (an increase of 88.7 thousand people compared to the previous quarter and an increase of more than 1 million people compared to the same period last year). However, the growth rate of the labor force showed signs of slowing down when the growth rate in the first quarter of 2023 compared to the previous quarter was only 0.2%. The labor force participation rate in the first quarter of 2023 was 68.9% (an increase of 0.8% compared to the same period last year). The labor force participation rate in urban areas was 65.2%, and in rural areas was 71.3%.

Average employee income in the first quarter of 2023 is 7.0 million VND (an increase of 640 thousand VND over the same period last year).

According to economic experts, the difficult production and business situation has led to more unpredictable developments in labor and employment. The number of enterprises facing difficulties and having to cut labor is 8,644, of which 27.4% are foreign-invested enterprises; 72.18% are non-state enterprises; 0.39% are state-owned enterprises. Enterprises facing difficulties are enterprises in the textile, footwear, wood processing, manufacturing, and assembly of electronic components industries... The number of employees in enterprises whose jobs are affected is 509,903 people (about 3.4% of the total number of employees in enterprises).

The reason for the layoffs is that businesses lack orders due to economic difficulties in many countries, high inflation, and tight monetary policies, which have led to a decrease in purchasing power, especially the demand for fashion items such as clothes, shoes, personal electronic devices, etc., causing many domestic businesses to have a large inventory that cannot be exported and no new orders.

In addition, high production costs make it impossible for many Vietnamese enterprises to compete. The negative consequences of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine have led to high energy prices, disrupted trade routes and raw material supplies, and caused damage to domestic manufacturing enterprises, especially those operating in import and export activities.

Some of Vietnam's major markets have set new requirements for product standards and there are changes in consumer tastes, so Vietnamese businesses are having difficulty organizing and rearranging production activities, while after a period of responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, the financial resources of businesses are no longer sufficient to do so.

Minister Dao Ngoc Dung said that policies to support businesses and workers have been and are being implemented through four main policy packages in the 2020-2022 period to support people, workers and businesses (according to Resolution No. 42/NQ-CP, Resolution No. 68/NQ-CP, Resolution No. 116/NQ-CP and Decision No. 08/2022/QD-TTg).

Accordingly, the Central and local governments have supported over 1.41 million employers and over 68.43 million workers and people with a total budget of over VND 120 trillion. In addition, other support policies are still being implemented according to regulations in legal documents on labor such as: Policies for workers who quit or lose their jobs; free job consultation and referral; vocational training support; preferential credit policies for job creation, job maintenance and expansion from the National Employment Fund; policies to support training and improve vocational skills for workers; policies to temporarily suspend contributions to the pension and death fund, etc.

Implementing the National Target Program on Sustainable Poverty Reduction, the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas, and the Socio-Economic Recovery and Development Program, ministries, sectors, and localities are implementing activities to support the connection between labor supply and demand. In addition to the general policies of the State, many enterprises, organizations, and localities also have their own support policies that benefit workers.

Enterprises often have additional policies to support employees in severance pay, paying higher severance pay than prescribed; local labor agencies focus on grasping the situation to support employees in finding new jobs, diversifying forms to increase the efficiency of connecting labor supply and demand, or some localities have their own policies to support employees based on the actual situation, such as Dong Nai...

According to Minister Dao Ngoc Dung, the solution to remove difficulties and obstacles in creating jobs for workers today is: Perfecting the system of policies and laws to synchronously develop labor market factors, improving the operational efficiency of market intermediary institutions, and developing the labor market information system.

Promote sustainable job creation and effective labor use through programs, projects, and credit policies to support job creation and labor market participation. Implement solutions to promote forecasting of labor demand and vocational training needs of enterprises in terms of quantity, quality, industry structure, and labor qualifications in enterprises.

Implement solutions to attract investment, support businesses to recover and develop production and business. Solutions need to focus on supporting businesses to access the market, find new orders, reduce production and business costs through reducing loan interest rates, supporting tax reduction, reducing fees and charges to be paid...

Promote solutions to support job creation, connect labor supply and demand, and ensure workers' rights. Implement solutions to grasp and promptly prevent workers from being lured and incited from the outside, causing social instability, affecting the production and business activities of enterprises and working workers.

According to News