HCMC – HCMC has seen a 3.2% decline in employment in October against the year-earlier period.
Le Thi Huynh Mai, director of the HCMC Department of Planning and Investment, told a meeting held on October 30 to discuss the city’s October socio-economic situation and year-end missions that the employment picture was not bright from now until the end of the year.
According to a survey of 9,560 businesses, 82% of them said they were planning to downsize, suspend or cease business activities in the remainder of the year. More than 7,300 other businesses intend to continue their operations but 71% of them have plans to lay off stafff, particularly in the construction and industrial sectors.
Many of these businesses are in the private sector, with half of them located in HCMC and Binh Duong Province. A major challenge for these enterprises is the lack of orders.
The Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs also expects a wave of significant layoffs to continue until the end of the year if economic conditions do not improve.
A report by the Statistics Office of HCMC indicated that the employment index in the processing and manufacturing sector in October inched down by 0.5% versus the previous month and 3.2% year-on-year.
In the year to date, the employment index has dropped by 2.5% year-on-year. The index in industries such as leather production, metal and mineral product manufacturing, and water drainage and wastewater treatment has declined by 17%, 12%, and 10%, respectively.
In October alone, 12,200 individuals in the city have claimed unemployment allowances, bringing the total to nearly 128,500 in January-October. This represents a 9% increase over the same period last year.
In the first 10 months, nearly 25,000 businesses in the city have suspended their operations, a 30% year-on-year increase.
Due to a sharp decline in orders, multiple producers in HCMC have laid off thousands of employees. For example, Pouyuen Vietnam in Tan Binh District has cut 9,000 jobs, while Garmex Saigon Joint Stock Company has laid off nearly 2,000 employees.
