Vietnam Q1 incomes rise 8.5% y/y as labor market stays stable: statistics office

Average income for male workers reached VND10.1 million ($383.5) per month, compared with VND7.7 million ($292.3) for female workers, while urban workers earned VND10.7 million ($406.2) and rural workers VND7.9 million ($230), the report said.

Income for salaried workers averaged VND10 million ($379.7) per month, up 6.6 percent from a year earlier, including VND10.5 million ($398.6) for men and VND9.5 million ($360.7) for women, with urban and rural levels at VND11.2 million ($425.2) and VND9.1 million ($345.5), respectively.

Workers include both salaried and self-employed employees, or informal labor, while salaried workers are defined as employees earning wages under employment contracts.

The labor force totaled about 53.6 million people aged 15 and above in the quarter, down 232,900 from the previous quarter but up 687,800 from a year earlier, with a participation rate of 68.3 percent, data showed.

Total employment reached 52.5 million, up 1.3 percent year on year, with the service sector employing 21.5 million people, or 41 percent of the workforce, followed by industry and construction at 17.7 million, while agriculture, forestry, and fisheries declined to 13.3 million.

The share of informal employment fell to 62.2 percent, down 2.1 percentage points from a year earlier, indicating a gradual shift toward more stable jobs.

The unemployment rate for working-age people stood at 2.21 percent, with urban unemployment at 2.46 percent, while the underemployment rate was 1.68 percent, the report said.

Youth unemployment remained higher at 8.86 percent, including 10.7 percent in urban areas, with nearly 1.6 million young people not in employment, education, or training.

Workers in subsistence and self-consumption activities, totaling more than 3.8 million people, mostly women in rural areas, continued to face challenges accessing skilled jobs, the report added.