Resolution 6/NQ-CP in 2023: Shall the rate of trained laborers with degrees and certificates in Vietnam reach 30% by 2025?

Main Content

• What are the assessments given by the Government of Vietnam on the recent labor market?
• What are the objectives of developing Vietnam’s labor market in the coming period?
• What are the key tasks and solutions to develop Vietnam’s labor market?

What are the assessments given by the Government of Vietnam on the recent labor market?

Recently, the Government issued Resolution 6/NQ-CP in 2023 on developing a flexible, modern, efficient, sustainable, and integrated labor market for rapid socio-economic recovery.

Accordingly, in Resolution 6/NQ-CP in 2023, the Government of Vietnam has given the following assessments on the labor market in recent years as follows:

After more than 35 years of national renovation, Vietnam's labor market has developed modernly and sustainably in both scale and quality towards international integration. The system of institutions and policies of Vietnam’s labor market has been perfected; labor supply and demand relations have increased;

The quality of employment is improving; step by step formalization of informal employment; the labor structure has made a positive shift towards reducing the proportion of labor in the agricultural sector, increasing the proportion of labor in the industrial and service sectors;

At the same time, there has been a rapid decrease in the proportion of vulnerable jobs, increasing the proportion of protected jobs; Vietnamese laborers have the ability to take on complex tasks that previously require foreign experts; wages and incomes of employees are improved markedly; Labor productivity and competitiveness of the labor force have been improved, making important contributions to Vietnam's socio-economic achievements in recent years.

However, Vietnam's labor market has not developed strongly enough to free up all resources for socio-economic development investment, has not created many jobs in a sustainable way, the local labor supply and demand between regions and areas are imbalanced, and industries, and human resources are not high quality.

In particular, the complicated development of the COVID-19 pandemic in recent years has caused severe effects on Vietnam’s labor market, millions of workers have reduced working hours, reduced income, suspended work, lost jobs, unemployed; nearly 2 million workers left Vietnam’s labor market (mostly free laborers, laborers without technical qualifications) that lead to many migrant workers returning to their hometowns, causing negative affects to labor supply and demand relations; local labor scarcity in a number of extant industries, fields, and areas;

There are no long-term fundamental solutions to remedy the labor supply and demand imbalance, and scarcity of highly qualified laborers, there is still a potential risk of supply chain disruption, and shortage of laborers for socio-economic development recovery;...

What are the objectives of developing Vietnam’s labor market in the coming period?

Specifically, Section II of Resolution 6/NQ-CP in 2023 clearly states the objectives of developing a flexible, modern, efficient, sustainable, and integrated labor market in the current period as follows:

General objectives:

- Develop Vietnam’s labor market flexibly, modernly, efficiently, sustainably and integratedly, contributing to socio-economic recovery and development in the period of 2021-2025.

Elements of Vietnam’s labor market must be developed synchronously and modernly; The quality of human resources and the efficiency of the organization and operation of Vietnam’s labor market are improved. Vietnam’s labor market plays an active role in mobilizing, allocating, and effectively using resources to promote socio-economic development, shift the labor structure towards modernity, and the connection of the domestic labor market with the labor market of countries in the region and the world.

Specific objectives: Striving to 2025:

- The proportion of agricultural laborers in total social labor is about 25%.

- The average growth rate of social labor productivity is over 6.5 %/year.

- The rate of trained laborers with degrees and certificates reaches 30%; about 25% of the labor force will be regularly retrained and trained.

- The Labor Index with specialized knowledge in the Global Innovation Index (GII) is in the top 60 countries.

- Maintain the general unemployment rate at a low level of less than 3%, the urban unemployment rate of under 4%; the urban youth unemployment rate of under 7%, and the rural youth underemployment rate of under 6%.

- The rate of health insurance coverage reaches 45%, of which farmers and informal laborers participating in voluntary social insurance is about 2.5% of the labor force in age; The rate of unemployment insurance coverage reaches 35%; the index assessing the satisfaction of social insurance participants reaches 85%.

What are the key tasks and solutions to develop Vietnam’s labor market?

In Section III of Resolution 6/NQ-CP in 2023, the Government of Vietnam has set out a number of key tasks and solutions to develop a flexible, sustainable, and integrated labor market as follows:

- Complete the legal framework, review and amend the provisions of law, and meet the needs of developing Vietnam’s labor market in the right direction, focusing on key areas:

+ Research and propose to promulgate and amend policies to limit unemployment and improve labor quality, such as: (i) supplement and complete proactive policies to prevent unemployment; (ii) issue policies to support vocational training through vocational training cards for laborers: regulate the professional standards and conditions to ensure effective implementation of vocational training activities at enterprises.

- Recover and stabilize Vietnam’s labor market:

+ Adhere to practice, proactive and flexible human resource management, closely coordinate labor market development policies with other markets to maintain macroeconomic stability, ensure balance a major part of the economy, including labor supply and demand; urgently review and assess human resource needs by industry, field, and region to promptly connect and supply labor.

+ Especially assess the human resource needs of foreign investors who have had projects and are studying to invest in Vietnam.

- Promote decent job creation and efficient use of the labor force:

+ Increase investment, and develop economic sectors to create more sustainable jobs.

+ Renovate the economic growth model associated with sustainable development in the direction of improving quality, creating many new high-quality and productive jobs.

+ Strengthen credit sources to promote the creation of new, creative, high-quality, and sustainable jobs; green jobs; jobs for disadvantaged people, people living in remote areas, and ethnic minorities; give priority to allocating capital to the Bank for Social Policies with sufficient resources to effectively implement credit programs for job creation and vocational training for employees, contributing to sustainable labor market development.

- Promote communication:

+ Raise awareness, especially the heads of a number of ministries, branches, localities, and units about the role and importance of developing Vietnam’s labor market; proactively take effective solutions to ensure and develop the labor market sustainably.

+ Strengthen information and propaganda activities timely and continuously to raise awareness of employees, employers, and other subjects participating in the labor market; ensure stability and development of Vietnam’s labor market.