Announcement Day of the Report on Vietnam Labor and Social Trends in 2019.

Sharing at the publication, PhD. Chu Thi Lan, Director of the Center for Environment and Labor Conditions, said: Assessing labor and social trends until 2021, it can be seen that the population size of the whole country will continue to increase at an average rate of 1.07% per year in the period of 2019 - 2021. The labor force participation rate of the population aged 15 and over will slightly decrease, 76.06% in 2019 and 75.48% in 2021. The size of the labor force aged 15 and above will increase to 55.76 million people in 2019 and 56.62 million people in 2021. The proportion of trained workers with diplomas or certificates will reach 23.14% in 2019 and 25.82% in 2021.

In 2019, the average nominal salary of wage workers will reach 6.15 million VND per month and increase up to 6.53 million VND by 2021. The average wage gap between agriculture, forestry and fisheries and industry and service are still quite large. The gap in 2019 is 64.32% and 57.73% respectively; By 2021, this gap will be 63.51% and 57.50%.

Regarding social insurance and unemployment insurance, according to PhD. Chu Thi Lan, forecasting that in the period of 2019-2021, the number of participants in social insurance will increase by an average of 1.2 million people per year, adding about 90.3 thousand people to the pension regime each year and the number of participants in unemployment insurance will have the average annual increase of nearly 740 thousand people.

In terms of poverty reduction, although the results are very positive with a rapid reduction in the proportion of poor households in poor districts, extremely difficult communes and ethnic minority areas, the number of poor households of ethnic minorities will still account for nearly 50% of the total poor households in the country; The gap between rich and poor among regions and population groups cannot be narrowed yet, especially the plains and the mountainous areas in the Northwest and Central Highlands will continue to be a challenge in the coming years.

The report also provides a number of policy implications, including the need to continue improving the legal system and policies in the field of labor and employment, especially the Labor Code, the Employment Law 2013, and the Vocational Education Law 2014. Creating a breakthrough in the quality of human resources, focusing on increasing the proportion of trained workers and renewing training to have new skills will meet the requirements of the labor market.

The report also recommends effective implementation on the Resolution No. 28-NQ/TW on social insurance policy reform, focusing on strengthening propaganda to raise people's awareness about social insurance and health insurance policies; completing social insurance policy; improving the effectiveness and efficiency of state management of social insurance; enhancing the effectiveness of the implementation of policies and laws on social insurance and unemployment insurance.

Along with that, review and amend the poverty reduction policies by gradually reducing policies to support for free and increasing policies in conditional loan support; separate the social insurance beneficiaries from those of poverty reduction policies, thereby having a basis for designing and implementing the poverty reduction policy effectively.

Study on how to adjust the level of regular and irregular social assistance standards in accordance with socio-economic development conditions and poverty standards applied to each period; continue to study and adjust the expansion of beneficiaries, giving priority to support to disadvantaged groups in remote, isolated and ethnic minority areas; diversify types of social assistance and enhance social welfare services./.