The number of employed persons in Vietnam increased in the first quarter of 2023, but the corresponding figure in Ho Chi Minh City declined, the General Statistics Office (GSO) reported at a press conference in Hanoi on Thursday.

The national workforce had around 52.2 million people aged 15 and older, an increase of 88,700 from the previous quarter and more than one million from the same period last year.

About 51.1 million people were employed, up 113,500 from the previous quarter and 1.1 million from the same period last year.

This translated to about 1.05 million unemployed people, down 34,600 people from the previous quarter and 65,100 from the same period last year.

About 885,500 people in working age were underemployed, a decrease of 12,400 people compared to the previous quarter and down 443,100 people compared to the same period last year.

More than 1.5 million young people aged 15-24 were neither employed nor in education, accounting for 11.7 percent of the total youth population and representing an increase of 54,200 compared to the previous quarter.

The Mekong Delta region had the highest unemployment rate at 2.64 percent, equivalent to nearly 220,000 people, followed by the southeastern region with 2.63 percent - or about 263,000 people.

Nearly 294,000 workers were on furlough or laid off in the first quarter, with 83.8 percent of them being foreign direct investment (FDI) workers.

The leather and footwear industry had the highest ratio of workers affected at 44.2 percent, followed by the textile and garment industry at 18.8 percent.

Against the national trend, seven localities recorded a reduction in employment, namely Ho Chi Minh City down 0.4 percent, Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province down 2.6 percent, Binh Phuoc Province down four percent, Nghe An province down 5.5 percent, Bac Giang Province down 4.5 percent, Bac Ninh Province down 0.9 percent, and Thai Nguyen Province down 2.2 percent.

About 9.7 percent of young people in Ho Chi Minh City and 6.4 percent in Hanoi were either unemployed or out of education.

Pham Hoai Nam, director of the Department of Population and Labor Statistics under the GSO, attributed the underemployment and unemployment to a decline in orders that began in the last quarter of 2022 and has persisted into the January-March period of this year.

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