HCMC – Some 30.8 million employees aged over 15 in Vietnam had been left reeling from the coronavirus pandemic by June, with roughly eight million being laid off or having their working hours reduced and 17.6 million given salary cuts.

Services were the hardest-hit sector, with a staggering 72% of employees affected, followed by the industrial and agro-forestry-aquatic sectors at 67.8% and 25.1%, respectively. These figures were given at a conference held on June 29 by the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs to discuss solutions for employees and employers nationwide to overcome the effects of Covid-19. Speaking at the event, head of the ministry’s Department of Employment Vu Trong Binh pointed out that the local labor market has been struggling to cope with the fallout from Covid-19 . The number of furloughed employees continued to rise, while the job opportunities at home and abroad were still a thorny issue in the first half of this year, the official noted. He added that some 540,000 people were employed in the first half of this year, meeting 36.5% of this year’s target. Meanwhile, over 565,000 people applied for unemployment allowances, up 32% compared with the same period last year, with expenditure on unemployment benefits reaching some VND7 trillion. Le Van Thanh, Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, forecast that the labor and employment sector would continue to face obstacles till the end of the year. The ministry would collate feedback from the affected enterprises and submit it to the Government to address problems. It also proposed that the Government relax regulations to allow companies to tap the unemployment insurance fund for employee training.