As many as 32.1 million people aged 15 and over in Viet Nam have been negatively affected by Covid-19, said Deputy head of the General Statistics Office Pham Quang Vinh at a press conference held on January 6 on employment situations in the fourth quarter of 2020 and the whole year 2020. 

As many as 32.1 million people aged 15 and over
in Viet Nam are negatively affected by Covid-19.

As of the end of December 2020, around 32.1 million people aged 15 and above suffered from unemployment, rotated working days off and reduced working time (around 40%) and less income (69.2%) due to Covid-19. 

Laborers working in the service sector have been severely impacted by Covid-19 (71.6%), followed by the industry and construction sector (64.7%) and agriculture-aquaculture-forestry (26.4%). 

In the fourth quarter of 2020, a total number of 902,200 laborers aged 15 and above were unemployed, higher than quarters in 2019, however, less than other quarters of 2020 (down from 3.08% in the second quarter to 2.79% in the third quarter and 1.89% in the fourth quarter). 

The number of unemployed laborers at working age in the fourth quarter of 2020 was estimated at 1.2 million, a decrease of 60,100 compared with the previous quarter and up 136,800 against the same period last year. 

The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the highest proportion of unemployment at working age in urban areas in the fourth quarter over the recent decade. 

The proportion of unemployment at working age in 2020 was 2.48%, 0.31 percentage point higher than in 2019. The proportion in the urban areas was 3.88%, an increase of 0.77 percentage point.