Four in five workers in the informal sector had to stop working for about a month to comply with the social distancing measures imposed to curb the virus, while two in three enterprises were forced to furlough their employees.
A survey by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA) on the first-quarter job market shows that Vietnam’s labour participation rate stood at 75.4%, the lowest level in ten years.
In May, nearly 158,000 people filed for unemployment benefits in Vietnam, up 155.2% over the previous month and 144% year-on-year.
Following the easing of social distancing rules, workers have started returning to work, at a rate of about 70,000-80,000 each month, but many enterprises have remained in a difficult situation due to stalled exports.
MOLISA said it is planning to spend between VND3-5 trillion (US$129-215 million) from the unemployment fund on retraining and skill enhancement to help workers adapt to coronavirus-induced changes to the labour market.
Under the most optimistic scenario, Vietnam will lose about 70,000-80,000 jobs each month in June and the third quarter if the global coronavirus situation improves.
The number of jobs lost each month will be 80,000-90,000 if the epidemiological situation in the world remains the same or becomes worse.
In the worst-case scenario when Vietnam is severely affected by the further deteriorating global situation, monthly job losses will total at 90,000-100,000.
The number of workers having their jobs suspended in the three above-mentioned scenarios will be 3-3.5 million, 5-5.6 million and 6.1-7.2 million respectively.
