Photo: Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam chairs the meeting on April 20. VNA Photo

At the meeting, participants said the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs should coordinate with Viet Nam Social Security to absorb comments in the process of amending the Law on Social Insurance and pay more attention to building policies to encourage employees to participate in long-term social insurance.

It aims to avoid the situation that many people, who are facing difficulties triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, register to receive a one-time social insurance allowance, the participants said.

Data from the labour ministry shows that in the first quarter of this year, the pandemic has a negative impact on more than 16.9 million people (aged 15 and over).

It is forecast that in 2022, the pandemic will continue to negatively affect more than 5 million workers across the country.

There is still an imbalance of local labour supply and demand and a labour shortage in key economic areas in the southern region.

Photo: Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Le Van Thanh delivers a speech at the meeting. VNA Photo

Labour shortage

Representatives of the Viet Nam General Confederation of Labour, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, and the Viet Nam Trade and Industry Confederation said that after the pandemic is under control, businesses returned to full operation.

Thus, there is a shortage of workers.

Moreover, foreign investors entering Viet Nam, as well as many enterprises expanding their production scale to meet increasing orders, have also exacerbated the labour shortage.

Along with that, in the last six weeks, the rate of people infected with COVID-19 has increased quickly, with many workers infected or having to take time off to take care of relatives with COVID-19.

This also worsened the shortage of workers.

Another cause of the labour shortage is that many workers who returned to their hometowns during the pandemic, chose to continue working there after the pandemic was controlled.

Photo: Delegates at the meeting. VNA Photo

In addition, employees have not been trained to meet the new criteria of employers in terms of qualifications and skills during the fourth industrial revolution and digital transformation.

Other causes include enterprises’ policies on recruitment not being attractive and the cost of living in big cities and provinces rising while wages remain low.

Deputy Minister Le Van Thanh also pointed out other causes such as the connection of labour supply and demand, as well as forecasting of the labour market situation are still limited.

Notably, in the first quarter of this year, there was a labour shortage of about 120,000 workers in some areas, accounting for nearly 10 per cent of the total recruitment demand.

It was mainly a shortage of unskilled labour in the textile and garment industry, assembling electronic components, wood processing and labourers in some industries that were strongly affected by the pandemic such as tourism and education.

Therefore, participants also suggested the ministry urgently submit to the Government for promulgating a decree on the minimum wage; and coordinate with localities and the Bank for Social Policies in deploying packages to support employees in renting and buying social housing.

The ministry was told to urgently implement the Vocational Education Development Strategy for the 2021-2030 period, based on attracting investment to closely coordinate with enterprises opening new occupations following the trend of the fourth industrial revolution.

It has to closely coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to review and improve the operational efficiency of rural vocational training centres; apply digital transformation as well as build a platform to connect the labour market./.