Labor and the Economy
Growth returns, but what about workers?
Good morning! Welcome to the latest subscriber-only edition of the Vietnam Weekly. I’m behind schedule once again, but a lot is going on personally at the moment (mostly good though). It looks like things will calm down by the second half of May, so I appreciate your patience in the meantime. If you’d like to upgrade to a paid subscription to receive future articles, you can do so below.
Today I’m discussing labor/economic issues, as there have been a few articles recently which painted a somewhat confusing picture of where things stand now that Covid-19 is largely in the rearview mirror.
What’s going on with workers?
It’s been a while since I touched on the labor market, which is one of the most prominent topics during and immediately after the lockdown last year.
Earlier this week, the General Statistics Office announced that the national average monthly income rose by 20% in Q1 compared to the final quarter of 2021, hitting VND6.4 million (US$280).
This figure was VND5.2 million in Q3 2021, which saw the worst of the lockdown-linked employment shock.
Southern provinces, which were hardest hit last year, had the highest average monthly incomes, with Ho Chi Minh City’s hitting VND8.9 million (US$389), followed by Binh Duong and Dong Nai.
HCMC’s economy, meanwhile, posted growth of 1.9% in the quarter, following huge contractions of 11.6% and 25% in the final two quarters of 2021 - this surprised experts, who had expected another quarter of losses.
The services sector accounted for almost all of this growth - 96.8% - while about 98% of the city’s factories have resumed operations.
While this is certainly good news, and HCMC has roared back in a fairly stunning way (traffic might be even worse than before the pandemic, or perhaps I just forgot what it was like), it does not mean that all is well.