Restore the labor market in 2022

​Workers participate in job interviews at the Provincial Employment Service Center

Solutions to attract workers

According to the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, after the 2022 Lunar New Year Holiday, about 95% of employees across the country have returned to their companies work. Some companies and localities have the rate of workers returning to work after Tet with nearly 100%. However, the current situation is that in many localities, the number of workers who are having to quit their jobs because they belong to F0 and F1 categories for treatment and isolation due to the Covid-19 epidemic is quite high, so it has more or less affected the health of workers and the production of enterprises in the area.

In addition, after the Tet Holiday, a part of workers returning to their hometowns have not returned to key southern provinces and cities to work or have found new jobs in the countryside, so they do not return to work, causing businesses to face the labor shortage. On the other hand, enterprises have the need to expand and recruit more workers while wages and other benefits are not suitable, so they have not yet attracted workers. In many localities, the labor force is mainly untrained and has low skills, so it cannot meet the recruitment requirements of enterprises.

At the conference, many opinions from the Confederation of Labor of provinces and cities, the Central Sector Trade Union showed that, with the current income of about VND7 million per month in big provinces and cities such as Dong Nai, Binh Duong, In Ho Chi Minh City, employees cannot afford daily living, child care and other expenses. Especially, for remote workers who have to pay more for renting accommodation and other expenses, this level of income cannot compensate for the regeneration of labor and life.

From the above fact, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor has made recommendations to the National Assembly, Government, ministries and central agencies to issue policies to attract workers to work in key economic regions such as: building houses for workers to rent cheaply, building apartments and social houses to sell to employees with a payment term of about 20 years so that employees can work with peace of mind. The government needs to have a reasonable policy mechanism to ensure the life of workers. Specifically, pay attention to adjusting the regional minimum wage, continue to have policies to support workers affected by the epidemic..., in order to contribute to ensuring labor resources in enterprises and in provinces and cities with crowded laborers.

Trade unions have also come up with many solutions to restore the labor market. In which, there will be links between the provincial Labor Confederations to support recruitment; strengthen supervision of the implementation of democracy in the workplace, to ensure that employees can actually exercise their democratic rights at work. In addition, timely promote trade union institutions in Industrial Zones such as houses, kindergartens, community activities for workers, etc. in order to improve the quality of life of employees in the coming time.

Strengthening labor connection

In Dong Nai Province, laborers return to work at stable enterprises, reaching a rate of over 98%. Enterprises in the province are in needs of recruiting more than 130,000 workers in many positions to produce the goods ordered by the customers in the year. However, recruiting workers is not easy, many businesses have to arrange personnel to other provinces to recruit workers. In addition, some businesses actively find accommodation near the workplace and support employees to buy necessary items in the first months of working at the company.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh, Vice President of Trade Union of Eclat Vietnam Textile and Garment Co., Ltd located in Nhon Trach District said right after the business returned to operation after the Tet Holiday, it started recruiting garment workers with no limit quantity. The grassroots trade union has supported the company in connecting and looking for unskilled workers to meet the production needs of enterprises. The company's union also asked the district’s Labor Confederation and the district’s Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs to assist in finding workforces. However, up to now, enterprises still lack serious resources, affecting the production of old and newly signed orders.

From the beginning of the year, the Provincial Trade Unions have made efforts to connect jobs for employees and businesses by posting recruitment information of enterprises on their websites and Facebook. The provincial Labor Confederation's representative said that, in the face of a labor shortage, the provincial Labor Confederation has directed trade unions at all levels to deploy solutions to overcome, share and accompany workers and businesses. In the immediate future, grassroots trade unions coordinate with employers to recruit new workers, trade unions participate in propaganda, advocacy, and support workers to know the information about salaries, bonuses, benefits and procedures for signing the labor contracts. Along with that, promoting activities to take care of welfare so that employees can feel secure in production.

According to enterprises in the province, currently, in order to ensure production, businesses all organize overtime, organize training for workers who can handle many job positions or sign the contracts with labor supply companies to make up for the shortage of human resources. Enterprises also offer salary and bonus policies to attract workers. Meanwhile, the grassroots trade union officials said that in order to attract workers, it is necessary to increase the regional minimum wage to ensure the workers' living standards. Because at present, the cost of living has increased, wages are not guaranteed to live and the life of workers coming from other provinces, so it is difficult to attract workers.