Some 30.8 million people aged over 15 in Vietnam have been left reeling by the coronavirus pandemic, with 897,500 losing their jobs, a meeting in Hanoi on July 10 heard.

The General Statistics Office (GSO) reported that the service sector was the hardest hit, with 72% of the employees affected, followed by industry and construction with 67.8% and agro-forestry-fishery with 25.1%.

Vu Thi Thu Thuy, Director of the GSO’s Population and Labour Statistics Department, said the number of employees aged over 15 in the second quarter was 51.8 million, down 2.4 million from the previous quarter and nearly 2.6 million year-on-year - the sharpest fall in the last decade and mainly in rural areas and among female labourers.

Jobs were lost in all sectors, especially processing and manufacturing, lodging and catering services, education and training, retail sales, and auto and motorbike repair services.

The rate of unofficial workers in the second quarter stood at 55.9%, a rise of 0.6% from the first quarter and 0.1% year-on-year.

Female unofficial workers are more vulnerable than men when the labour market is impacted by policy changes or natural disasters and disease, according to Pham Quang Vinh, deputy head of the GSO.