Participants at the press conference (Photo: VNA) Nam said that of those affected, 540,000 people lost their jobs and 2.8 millionhad to temporarily cease business and production activities.
Meanwhile, 3.1 million people said they had their hours cut or were forced totake time off from work, while 6.5 million workers reported reductions in theirincome.
Workers in urban areas were more severely affected than those in rural areas,with 15.6 percent of those in urban areas still affected, compared to 10.4percent in rural areas.
Nguyen Minh Huy, deputy director of the department, said Vietnam recorded fewerworkers in the first quarter of 2021 both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year. Vietnamhas long posted rising numbers of workers each year.
The workforce totalled 51 million people in the quarter, down 1.1 million quarter-on-quarterand nearly 181,000 year-on-year.
The GSO said the third wave of COVID-19 in Vietnam affected the recovery of thecountry’s labour market, pushing a lot of people, especially women, into theinformal economy.
The number of employed workers aged 15 and over in the first quarter was49.9 million, down more than 959,000 against the previous quarter and nearly178.000 against the same period last year./.
VNA
