Vietnam Macro Thought Piece - COVID-19 resurgence disrupts labor market recovery

The return of COVID-19 dampens recovery momentum in the labor market

According to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO), the total labor force edged up to 51.07 million people in Q2 2021 (+40,000 QoQ and +1.66 million YoY). Meanwhile, number of unemployed people reached 1.23 million (+110,000 QoQ and
-100,000 YoY), leading to an unemployment rate of 2.4% — higher than 2.2% in Q1 2021 but still lower than the high of 2.68% in Q2 2020.
The number of people affected by COVID-19 plunged from 30.5 million in Q2 2020 to 9.1 million in Q1 2021; however, it rose to 12.8 million in H1 2021 (accounting for 25% of the labor force) due to the resurgence of COVID-19 in Vietnam since late April 2021. Of the total people affected by COVID-19 in H1 2021, 4.4% lost jobs, 31.8% had to temporarily suspend their production/business, 34.1% had their working hours cut, and 66.4% had reduced income.

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