At the national virtual conference held on January 14, to deploy the tasks of labour, people with meritorious services and society in 2023, Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung said, that in the past year, the sector has actively researched and proposed to the Party Central Committee, the National Assembly and the Government measures to restore production and short-term and long-term social security policies.

According to the MoLISA, the labour market in 2022 witnessed a fast and strong recovery. The average income of employees continuously increased and improved from the first quarter to the third quarter of 2022.

The sector has actively researched and proposed to the Party Central Committee. Photo: VGP

The labour force, the number of people working, and average monthly income increased compared to the previous year. The work of creating jobs associated with raising incomes for workers has always been a concern for local authorities.

However, from the beginning of the fourth quarter of 2022 until now, several industries and fields have encountered difficulties in production, business, and job maintenance for employees, especially enterprises in the fields of textiles, garments and leather shoes, wood processing, etc.

To promptly stabilise the situation, the MoLISA submitted to the Prime Minister to issue Official Dispatch No.1170/CD-TTg dated December 16, 2022, on measures to stabilise and develop flexible, effective, sustainable labour and take care of employees' lives.

Labour market sees fast recovery
Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung told, Vietnam has 51.9 million labourers, 2.8 million higher than the figure recorded at the same time last year, while the rate of new labourers joining the labour market is 68.7%.

Currently, the unemployment rate is 2.28%, he said, underlining that Vietnam is among the countries with the lowest rate.

Regarding the implementation of support to people hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, Dung said that so far, 87 trillion VND (3.5 billion USD) has been provided as assistance to 56 million pandemic-affected labourers and more than 730,000 employers.

The policies have greatly contributed to the economic recovery and development, he said, citing statistics from the Statistics Office as showing that the average monthly income of labourers in the third quarter of this year was 7.6 million VND each, 1.6 million VND higher than that of 2021. In the service sector, the amount rose to over 8 million VND, he added.

The official also highlighted progress of the national target programme on sustainable poverty reduction, with the majority of criteria reached.

According to the minister, improvement has also been seen in vocational training activities in both scale and quality.

However, he pointed to a number of challenges in ensuring social welfare and poverty reduction. Currently, 2.4 million households are living under and near the poverty line, accounting for 9% of the total households.

The number of labourers in the informal sector remains high, he said, adding that the poverty reduction target of this year is likely to be completed but at a lowest level in many years.

Dung said that in the future, the ministry will continue to give advice to the Politburo and the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat to issue a directive on the strengthening of the Party leadership to vocational training activities and the building of a flexible, modern, sustainable and developed labour market.

It will advise the Government to issue a resolution on labour market development, which focuses on the renovation and improvement of vocational training quality, the connection of labour demand and supply, and the enhancement of labour productivity.