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The latest Covid-19 outbreak in the country has delayed the recovery of the labor market, forcing workers, especially women, to seek jobs in informal sectors.

The labor market continues to be severely affected by the third resurgence of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the number of unemployed people in the first quarter rising to nearly 1.1 million, a surge of over 12,100 year-on-year.

Workers at a garment factory. Photo: Kinhtedothi

This resulted in an unemployment rate of 2.42% in the quarter, up 0.08 percentage points compared to the same period of last year.

Head of the Department of Population and Labor Statistics under the General Statistics Office (GSO) Pham Hoai Nam revealed the information at a press conference on April 16 on the labor situation in the January – March period.

During the period, a total of 9.1 million workers aged 15 and over had been affected by the pandemic, in which 540,000 were out of work and 2.8 million forced to take temporarily lay-off.

Other 3.1 million faced reduced working hours or unpaid leave, while 6.5 million people received less income than before.

The agro-forestry-fishery sector was the least affected by the pandemic with 7.5% of its workforce hurt by the pandemic. Meanwhile, over 20% of workers in the services sector are struggling with the current crisis, together with 16.5% in the industry and construction sectors.

Nam also noted that the total number of workforce in the first quarter declined by 1.1 million against the previous quarter and 180,900 year-on-year.

“The latest Covid-19 outbreak in the country has delayed the recovery of the labor market, forcing workers, especially women, to seek jobs in informal sectors,” Nam said.

In the first quarter, the number of people unable to find jobs were 971,400, up 143,200 quarter-on-quarter.

According to Nam, these figures indicate difficulties and challenges that the economy is facing at the moment, saying drastic measures are needed for Vietnam to realize the dual target of both containing the pandemic and boosting economic recovery.

To address issues in the labor market, the GSO recommended the government to soon put the “vaccine passport” into practice, along with setting up criteria for opening up tourism market for foreign tourists.

“This would prevent the services and tourism sectors from missing opportunities to recover and grow,” it added.

Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – The Vietnamese economy continues to face many difficulties in the following quarters and the target of a 6.5 percent growth rate this year will be a great challenge as the global economy is still affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, head of the General Statistics Office (GSO) Nguyen Thi Huong has stated.

Talking to the Vietnam News Agency, Huong said that the country’s stable macro-economy and the economic growth of 4.58 percent in the first quarter of 2021, higher than the 3.68 percent of the same period last year, are favourable conditions for production and business.

However, the resurgence of the pandemic in late January has posed challenges for the management and direction of economic development and for ensuring social welfare.

Right from the beginning of this year, Huong went on, the Government and the Prime Minister instructed ministries, sectors and localities to carry out measures synchronously, flexibly and effectively to achieve the dual targets of fighting the pandemic and stepping up economic recovery and development.

The number of new businesses in Q1 reduced by 1.4 percent year-on-year, but their total registered capital rose by 27.5 percent. The disbursement of foreign investment increased by an estimated 6.5 percent year-on-year, and the average CPI rose by 0.29 percent – the lowest for Q1 within 20 years, Huong said.

Head of the General Statistics Office (GSO) Nguyen Thi Huong (Photo: VNA)

To curb inflation, she recommended authorized agencies to keep a close watch on price developments of commodities inside and outside the country. She stressed that the adjustment of prices of commodities managed by the State should be made at a right time and at an appropriate level.

Huong expressed her belief that the Government’s goal of curbing inflation at around 4 percent this year is feasible.

To overcome difficulties, the business community was advised to take initiative in seeking new opportunities, ideas, orientations and business partners.

The State should continue issuing policies and effective support packages for businesses and consider reducing corporate income tax for all enterprises until the end of this year.

To achieve a 6.5 percent growth rate , it is important to well control the pandemic, stabilise economic development and maintain the agricultural sector’s growth pace, Huong stated, adding that Vietnam should bring into full play opportunities brought about by free trade agreements to speed up import-export activities and improve the competitiveness and values of exported products.

Ministries and sectors should speed up public investment disbursement and pay more attention to developing e-commerce, she added./.

While Vietnam has established a set of national gender development indicators since 2011, nearly two-thirds of them cannot be broken down by gender.

The World Bank has signed an AU$740,000 (US$563,000) grant with the State Bank of Vietnam through the Second Australia-World Bank Group Strategic Partnership to support the implementation of a nationwide time-use survey that aims to help close data gaps in gender policymaking.

Female workers at a company in Hanoi. Photo: Chien Cong

Conducted by the General Statistics Office (GSO), this survey will cover 6,000 women and men across the country to collect data on their daily time allocations.

“Despite progresses in some aspects of improving gender equality in education, health, voice and economic empowerment, Vietnam still faces many persistent challenges on gender equality,” said Carolyn Turk, World Bank Country Director for Vietnam.

“Building a comprehensive, gender-disaggregated dataset is important for monitoring gender gaps and designing effective solutions. The result of this survey will not only contribute to enriching such a dataset but also potentially help with policy-making for better labor market outcomes for women.”

While Vietnam has established a set of national gender development indicators since 2011, nearly two-thirds of them cannot be broken down by gender. Further, indicators related to time use are missing.

Measuring unpaid time use – for example, time spent on household chores – is crucial for valuing women’s and men’s contributions in households, and for understanding how investments and public policies affecting use of time can reduce gender gaps in labor market outcomes and promote equity between men and women.

“We already know that around 40 per cent of Vietnamese women that are not engaged in employment cite care responsibilities as the main reason,” said H.E. Robyn Mudie, the Australian Ambassador to Vietnam.

“This survey will bring us data on the extent of this unpaid work and the imperative for redistributing this fairly – for equality and for the economy. Australia is pleased to support the Government of Vietnam and the World Bank Group in conducting this survey.”

This grant is implemented by GSO under the World Bank’s Vietnam Women’s Economic Empowerment Project, which carries out comprehensive data- and evidence-based analyses on emerging challenges to gender equality and provides technical support to policy makers and investment programs to address these challenges.

The GDP growth target of 6.5% for 2021 is a challenge for the country, which requires strong efforts from the government, business community and people.

The Covid-19 pandemic continued to impact Vietnam’s socio-economic performance in the first quarter of this year, leaving the country’s GDP growth in the first quarter (Q1) of 2021 at an estimated 4.48% year-on-year, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

Data: GSO. Chart: Ngoc Thuy

The rate, however, remained significantly higher than the one recorded in the same period of last year, which was 3.68%, stated the GSO in its latest report.

In the January-March period, the sector of agriculture, forestry and fishery increased by 3.16%, contributing 8.34% to the overall growth; the sector of industry and construction rose by 6.3%, contributing 56%; and the service sector climbed by 3.34%, contributing 35.7%.

Manufacturing and processing continued to be the driving force of the economy with an expansion rate of 9.45%, while the mining sector contracted 8.24%.

In the industry and construction sector, the industry expanded 5.17% year-on-year in the three-month period, higher than the 4.37% growth rate of Q1/2020.

The services sector witnessed positive growth as the Covid-19 pandemic is gradually contained in Vietnam, along with positive impacts from existing free trade agreements that the country is a part of.

With a growth rate of 7.35%, finance, banking and insurance remained the fastest growing sub-component under services sector, followed by wholesale and retail (6.45%). Meanwhile, accommodation and catering services suffered a decline of 4.49% and transportation, -2.17%.

The first quarter of 2021 also saw the recovery of trading activities, as trade turnover surged by 24% year-on-year to US$152 billion, resulting in a trade surplus of US$2 billion during the period.

The GSO, nevertheless, said given the uncertainties of the pandemic situation around the world, “the GDP growth target of 6.5% is a major challenge, which requires strong efforts from the government, business community and people.”

Among measures to push for greater economic growth, the agency called for speedy implementation of vaccination program against Covid-19, while providing the business community with better access to government support programs and accelerating disbursement rate of public investment.