Following improvements last year, the outlook for the labour market is optimistic, said Director of the Institute of Labour Science and Social Affairs Nguyen Thi Lan Huong.

Vietnam will have around 55.3 million people in its workforce within the next 12 months, accounting for 77.8% of the population aged 15 and above. Among them, about 54.1 million are expected to have jobs, she added.

By the end of the year’s fourth quarter, the transport and storage industries will record an annual increase of 8.8% in the number of workers, which will rise 8.2% in processing and manufacturing, and 4.5% in information and communications.
Meanwhile, the figure will decline in mining (8.8%), as well as agriculture, forestry and fisheries (1.6%), Huong noted.

A recent labour market report by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs showed that 53.5 million people were employed in the last quarter of 2015, a slight rise from the preceding three months and a year before.

Meanwhile, more than 1.05 million people or 2.18% of the working-age population were idle during the quarter, down sharply from the third quarter but up slightly from the same period in 2014.