Hanoi (VNA) – The labour market maintained its recovery and stable growth in the first half of 2026, with the employment figure rising to 52.6 million, up 672,500 from a year earlier, and unemployment and underemployment staying at low levels, reported the National Statistics Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Finance.
The office's socio-economic report released on July 3 showed that the workforce aged 15 and above reached an estimated 53.8 million in the second quarter, up 175,600 from the previous quarter and 693,500 year-on-year. In the first six months of the year, the workforce numbered 53.7 million, an increase of 690,700 from the same period last year.
The proportion of workers holding formal qualifications or certificates rose to 29.7% during the January–June period, up 0.8 percentage points year-on-year, reflecting gradual improvement in the workforce quality.
The number of employed people was estimated at 52.7 million in the second quarter of 2026, up 170,200 from the previous quarter and 688,300 from a year earlier.
The underemployment rate among the working-age population stood at 1.65% during the first half of the year, a decline of 0.07 percentage points from the same period last year. It was 1.24% in urban areas and 1.92% in rural areas.
Average monthly income of workers in this period stood at 9 million VND (over 340 USD), an increase of 717,000 VND year-on-year.
For the first six months, the unemployment rate among the working-age population was 2.22%, unchanged from the same period last year, with 2.47% in urban areas and 2.05% in rural areas.
The NSO said the labour market continued to undergo a positive structural shift in line with the country's economic transformation. Employment in agriculture, forestry and fisheries continued falling, by 202,600 year-on-year in the first half, while industry and construction added 474,100 workers and the services sector expanded by 400,900.
The services sector now employs around 21.6 million people, accounting for 40.9% of total employment, followed by industry and construction with 17.7 million workers, or 33.9%. Meanwhile, the share of agriculture, forestry and fisheries declined to 25.2%.
The office noted that the trend reflects an ongoing shift of labour from lower-productivity sectors to higher-value industries, helping improve workforce utilisation and support economic growth.
Besides, it added, the number of those working in core digital economy sectors totalled about 1.5 million, representing nearly 3% of the country's employed workforce, significantly higher than in previous years.
Nguyen Thi Thanh Mai, acting head of the population and labour statistics division at the NSO, considered this as a positive signal showing that digital transformation is creating new employment opportunities and encouraging workers to move into more technology- and knowledge-intensive industries.
However, the labour market continues to face several challenges. Informal workers still accounted for about 62% of total employment, while the rate of young people who were unemployed or did not engage in education or training remained relatively high.
This fact indicates the need to step up skill training, improve manpower quality, create more formal employment chances, and support the shift to sectors with higher productivity and value, Mai said./.
VNA
