(MPI) - According to the report of the General Statistics Office, Ministry of Planning and Investment on the labor and employment situation in the first quarter of 2024, domestically, the Vietnamese labor market has both positive and negative aspects. The labor force and the number of employed people in the first quarter of 2024 increased compared to the same period last year. Informal workers still account for a large proportion, about more than 3/5 of the total number of employed workers in the country.
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| Illustration photo. Source: MPI |
Average monthly income of workers and the unemployment rate among working-age people increased compared to the previous quarter and increased compared to the same period last year; the unemployment rate among working-age people decreased compared to the previous quarter and decreased compared to the same period last year.
The labor force aged 15 and over in the first quarter of 2024 was 52.4 million people, an increase of 175.8 thousand people compared to the same period last year. The labor force has returned to the normal development trend as in the pre-Covid-19 period (the labor force in the first quarter usually tends to decrease slightly compared to the fourth quarter of the previous year but is still higher than the same period last year).
In the first quarter of 2024, the number of employed workers reached 51.3 million, an increase of 174.1 thousand people over the same period last year. Vietnam is still in the golden population structure period with an abundant and annually increasing working-age population, which is an advantage for supplementing the labor force, including employed workers.
The rate of trained workers with degrees and certificates in the first quarter of 2024 was 27.8%, up 0.2 percentage points compared to the previous quarter and up 1.4 percentage points compared to the same period last year. Vietnam, like many other countries, is undergoing rapid economic development and industrialization. In an increasingly globalized and industrialized economy, the need for highly qualified and specially skilled human resources is very important.
Therefore, awareness of the need to maintain and develop skills through continuous learning is increasing among the Vietnamese workforce. Expandingeducational facilities can also play an important role in increasing the proportion of workers who undergo continuous education. Vietnam has focused on improving the quality of education and expanding educational infrastructure to provide learning opportunities to more people. This creates favorable conditions for workers to continue learning and upgrading their qualifications after entering the workforce.
The average monthly income of workers continued to improve, reaching VND 7.6 million in the first quarter of 2024, an increase of VND 301,000 compared to the previous quarter and VND 549,000 compared to the same period last year. The average monthly income of workers increased in most economic sectors compared to the same period last year.
Some industries recorded a fairly high average income growth rate compared to the same period last year: Real estate business was 12.1 million VND, up 15.3%, equivalent to an increase of 1.6 million VND; production and distribution of electricity, gas, hot water, steam was 11.1 million VND, up 12.7%, equivalent to an increase of 1.3 million VND; finance, banking and insurance activities were 13.1 million VND, up 12.7%, equivalent to an increase of 1.5 million VND; accommodation and catering services were 7.3 million VND, up 9.3%, equivalent to an increase of 617 thousand VND; warehousing and transportation was 10.5 million VND, up 9.2%, equivalent to an increase of 880 thousand VND.
Thanks to the enhancement of job consulting and referral activities and the organization of job exchanges, the unemployment situation in the first quarter of 2024 has improved compared to the previous quarter. The unemployment rate among working-age people in the first quarter of 2024 was 2.24%, down 0.02 percentage points compared to the previous quarter and down 0.01 percentage points compared to the same period last year. The unemployment rate among working-age people in urban areas continued to remain below 3% from the first quarter of 2022 (the first quarters of 2022, 2023, and 2024 were: 2.88%; 2.66%, and 2.64%, respectively).
However, in addition to the above positive points, the labor market situation still has limitations such as the quality of labor supply is still inadequate, limited, not meeting the labor demand of a modern, flexible, sustainable and integrated labor market. The whole country still has 37.8 million untrained workers. This number shows a significant challenge in improving the technical expertise of workers.
The labor market has not seen much improvement in labor quality as the number of informally employed workers doing precarious and unstable jobs still accounts for a large proportion, accounting for more than 3/5 of the total number of employed workers in the country. The total number of informally employed people (including workers in agricultural households) in the first quarter of 2024 was 33.3 million, an increase of 240.1 thousand people over the same period last year, mainly due to the increase in the number of informal workers in the service sector (an increase of 696.3 thousand people).
Although the number of employed workers has returned to the normal growth trend as before the Covid-19 pandemic, the rate of informal employment still accounts for a large proportion. The rate of informal employment in the first quarter of 2024 was 64.8%, up 0.2 percentage points over the same period last year. By region, the rate of informal employment in urban areas was 49.3%, up 0.1 percentage points over the fourth quarter of 2023 and up 0.3 percentage points over the same period last year; the rate of informal employment in rural areas was 74.4%, unchanged from the previous quarter and up 0.6 percentage points over the same period last year.
During the Lunar New Year holiday, many businesses and production establishments often increase the recruitment of temporary seasonal workers or overtime to meet business needs before Tet. However, after the holiday ends, the number of working hours and workers often decrease. As a result, the unemployment rate in the first quarter is often higher than in the previous quarter. The number of unemployed people of working age in the first quarter of 2024 was about 933,000 people, an increase of 26,400 people compared to the previous quarter and an increase of 47,200 people compared to the same period last year. The unemployment rate in the working age in the first quarter of 2024 was 2.03%, an increase of 0.05 percentage points compared to the previous quarter and an increase of 0.09 percentage points compared to the same period last year, of which the urban area was 1.20%, lower than the rural area (2.58%).
The youth unemployment rate remains high. The unemployment rate of youth aged 15-24 in the first quarter of 2024 was 7.99%, up 0.37 percentage points from the previous quarter and 0.38 percentage points from the same period last year. The youth unemployment rate in urban areas was 10.18%, up 0.72 percentage points from the same period last year; in rural areas it was 6.87%, up 0.22 percentage points.
The underutilized labor rate is a synthetic indicator indicating the level of "phase difference" between labor supply and demand in the market; reflecting the oversupply of labor. In normal economic development conditions, the underutilized labor rate always exists. This rate often increases when the market is subject to socio-economic shocks.
Vietnam's underutilized labor rate usually fluctuates around 4%. From the first quarter of 2020 to the second quarter of 2022, this rate reached a record high of 10.4% in the third quarter of 2021, then gradually decreased and remained at 4.2%. By the first quarter of 2024, this rate is 4.4% (equivalent to more than 2.3 million people).
The majority of underutilized laborers are people aged 15-34 (49.0%), much higher than the proportion of this age group in the labor force (31.3%). This shows that Vietnam still has a large part of its untapped potential labor force, especially the young labor group./.
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