Vietnam’s H1 unemployment rate steady at 2.27%

Vietnam’s unemployment rate is estimated at 2.27% in the first half of this year, unchanged from the same period last year, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

The GSO estimates the jobless rate at 2.68% and 2% in urban and rural areas, respectively.

On a quarterly basis, the unemployment rate is estimated at 2.29% in the second quarter of 2024, down 0.01 percentage point over the year.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate among people aged between 15 and 24 is estimated to have inched up to 8%, a 0.49-percentage-point increase from H1/2023. The rate is estimated at 8.02%, up 0.6 percentage points year-on-year.

At the end of June, the country’s workforce aged 15 and above is estimated at 52.5 million people, up 196,600 year-on-year. This includes 27.86 million males and 24.6 million females, up 110,100 and 86,500 year-on-year, respectively.

The number of employed people aged 15 and above is estimated at 51.4 million in the six-month spell, up 195,700 year-on-year.

The service sector accounted for the lion's share of the nation’s workforce with 20.7 million employed workers (40.2%, up 509,700 year-on-year), followed by industry-construction with 17 million (33.1%, down 201,200) and agriculture-forestry-fisheries with 13.7 million (26.7%, down 112,800).

The number of underemployed people in H1 is estimated to have grown by 27,300 year-on-year to 940,500.

The GSO estimates the H1/2024 average monthly income of contracted workers at VND7.5 million ($295), up VND519,000 ($20.4) year-on-year.

The average monthly income of Vietnamese male and female workers with labor contracts was VND8.5 million ($334) and VND6.4 million ($251.4), respectively; with corresponding figures for urban and rural areas at VND9.1 million ($357) and VND6.5 million ($255), the GSO report says.

Vietnam's population surpassed the 100-million mark in April 2023, being the 15th most populous country worldwide.