Hundreds of people are flocking to the employment center in Hanoi every day for unemployment benefits after losing their jobs due to the Covid-19 outbreak. 

A crowd gathered in front of the Hanoi Center for Employee Service in Cau Giay District early on Thursday before it even opened. The first ones had arrived and stood in line almost two hours before it opened at 6 a.m.

 So far, 80 percent of the applications the center receives is for unemployment benefits and others are people looking for jobs. The applicants include salespersons, electronics technicians, accountants, garment workers, tour guides, and construction engineer.

 In May the center received 11,700 applications, 41 percent up from May last year and 71 percent up from May 2018. In the first 10 days of June more than 4,500 people had applied and on Wednesday alone, there were 431.

Everyone coming to the center has their temperature checked for Covid-19 symptoms.

Ung Doan Hung, an employee at the center, said in the last one month he has been checking the temperatures of around 700 people per day on average and 900 on crowded days.

 The man getting his temperature checked in the photo above is a 58-year-old technician at a taxi firm. He lost his job in late April after working for 25 years. He had planned to work for a few more years and pay social insurance for the full 20 years so that he could get a retirement pension, but the pandemic changed everything. "At this age I can hardly find a job anywhere," he said, adding that paying the college tuition of his son for the next two years would be a burden for him and his wife.

People rush into the center to get their queue tokens.

Data from the center shows that of women account for 65 percent of people applying for unemployment benefits.

Phuong Ngan (L) of Ba Dinh District brought her six-month-old daughter to the center to apply for unemployment benefits, and so was ushered into the front of the queue. She worked for a construction company. In March she returned to work after six months of maternity leave. But due to the pandemic her company did not get have much work. Eventually she decided to quit.

Three months from the day they lose the job, people who have social insurance can apply for unemployment benefits.

"From now until July the pressure [on us] will be even greater because more people will come for unemployment benefits as many have lost their jobs since April," Ta Van Thao, the director of the center, said.

A 26-year-old woman applies for a job.

 The pandemic has cost nearly five million workers their jobs as of mid-April, taking Q1 employment figures to a 10-year low, with just 75.4 percent of population in working age having jobs. Manufacturing was the worst affected with 1.2 million jobs lost, followed by wholesale and retail (1.1 million) and accommodation and catering services (740,000), according to the General Statistics Office.

 Vietnam closed all non-essential businesses in late March in an effort to contain the pandemic. While most non-essential services were allowed to resume operations after a social distancing campaign was ended in late April, karaoke parlors and discotheques were not allowed to reopen until Tuesday.