Working hours of 547,000 people reduced in Sep 2022-Jan 2023

As many as 546,835 people of over 1,300 firms in 50 cities and provinces had their working hours reduced between September 2022 and January 2023 due to decreases in business orders, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor said Friday.

Of this, 491,212 people had to work less or were on paid leave, or 89.92% of the total; 7,000 people had their labor contracts suspended or took leave without payment, or 1.28%; and 48,623 people had their labor contracts terminated, or 9%.

The biggest impact belonged to foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs), accounting for 75% of affected laborers, and the most-affected sectors were textile-apparel, footwear, and wood processing with 77%. In terms of locations, HCMC and the provinces of Long An, Tay Ninh, Dong Nai, Binh Duong, and An Giang were most severely affected, with 70%.

Besides, 36 firms in 16 localities were unable to pay wages of VND74.29 billion ($3.12 million) to 5,979 employees in the period, compared to the VND79.39 billion ($3.34 million) of wage arrears and 8,300 workers recorded a year ago.

Additionally, the country recorded 26 labor conflicts and strikes between December 2022 and January 2023, or around the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday 2023, down from 51 during Tet 2022, due to problems related to late wage payment, meals, treatment of employees.

Taiwanese sneaker maker PouYuen Vietnam, the largest employer in Ho Chi Minh City in terms of workforce, early this week announced they would axe more than 2,000 jobs this month.

The subsidiary of Taiwan-based Pou Chen Group currently has about 50,500 workers, according to labor officials in HCMC's Binh Tan district, where PouYuen Vietnam's shoe factory is located.

According to the labor officials, the reason for the lay-offs is a decline in large orders last year. The company has said it had tried its best but could not guarantee jobs for such a large number of employees while there was no guarantee of upcoming orders.

Vietnam’s unemployment rate inched up 0.04 percentage points from Q3/2022 to 2.32% in Q4/2022, the General Statistics Office reported. Overall, in 2022, the unemployment rate reached 2.32%, ranging from 2.79% in urban areas to 2.03% in rural localities.

The average monthly income of contracted laborers reached VND7.5 million ($317), up by VND992,000 or 15.24% year-on-year. Labor productivity reached $8,083 per worker in 2022, up by $622 or 4.8% after a year.