Japan was the largest recipient of Vietnamese workers, employing 32,053 ones, followed by Chinese Taipei 15,533 and the Republic of Korea 1,209. 

Viet Nam's plan to send 90,000 laborers abroad to work under contract this year, is feasible, said deputy head of the Department of Overseas Labor under the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Nguyen Gia Liem. 

Due to COVID-19 impacts, last year, Viet Nam sent 45,058 workers abroad, equivalent to 50 percent of its yearly labor export target.

Viet Nam sent 51,677 workers, including 19,849 females, abroad under labor contracts in the first half of 2022, according to the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.

In Europe, nine countries including Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, Bulgaria, the Cyprus Republic, Turkey, Slovakia, Belarus and Portugal, have accepted workers from Viet Nam. Many labor suppliers are recruiting up to thousands of laborers for jobs overseas.

Besides traditional markets such as Japan, the RoK and Taiwan, the department will try to make inroad into promising markets like Germany, Russia, Australia and Israel. Currently, Germany is in need of about 40,000 health workers as well as a large number of workers for the automobile and hospitality sectors.

Last March, Vietnamese Minister of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung and Australian Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne signed the first memorandum of understanding (MOU) under the Australian Agriculture Visa Program.

Under the MoU, Australia planned to receive about 1,000 Vietnamese workers per year with an average wage of VND 52.8-66 million (AUD 3.200 AUD-4.000) per month./.