This comment was made by leaders of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs at the seminar "Implement solutions to support and stabilize the labor market in the context of the pandemic", organized by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs. Association and People's Newspaper held on November 17.

LOCAL LABOR Shortage

Assessing the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the domestic labor market, Mr. Le Van Thanh, Deputy Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs said that from the beginning of 2021, Covid-19 will negatively affect tens of millions of workers. In the third quarter of 2021, employees are affected the most with 4.7 million workers losing their jobs, 14.7 million workers taking a break or temporarily suspending production and business; over 10 million employees reduce working hours and temporarily stop working.

In particular, the Southeast region and the Mekong River Delta were severely affected with 4.59% of employees in the Southeast region and 44.7% of workers in the Mekong River Delta affected by the shutdown. work, lay off, quit.

Due to the strong impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, there has been a large shift of labor from urban areas to rural areas, from major economic centers to provinces. Over the past time, there have been about 1.3 million workers from Ho Chi Minh City. Ho Chi Minh City and key southern provinces to localities (accounting for about 60% of people moving).

Surveys in provinces and cities in key economic regions show that there is a local labor shortage, but not much because businesses have not returned to operation 100%. Currently, there are about 70-75% businesses, 50-60% of the workforce compared to the normal state, on the other hand many businesses have retention policies, so the level of labor shortage is insignificant.

However, Deputy Minister Le Van Thanh said that around January 2022 is the time when the demand for goods prepared for the Lunar New Year is very high, requiring a lot of labor to restore production, especially in the rural areas. province in the southern key economic region. Therefore, the labor shortage may increase at the end of the first quarter and second quarter of 2022, when businesses are restored to their highest capacity, the demand for labor recruitment will increase. It is expected that in 2022, the number of employees with recruitment needs will be about 700,000 people.

"The risk of labor shortage will be prevented if there are solutions and policies to support businesses and ensure social security and health for workers in the new normal condition", Deputy Minister Le Van Thanh said.

ENTERPRISES STRONGLY INCREASING YEAR-END RECRUITMENT

In one of the key labor markets in the South affected by the pandemic, Mr. Le Minh Tan, Director of the Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs of Ho Chi Minh City. According to Ho Chi Minh City, up to now, the scale of labor for production activities at enterprises in the area ranges from 80% to 90% of the total number of employees. Workers in the neighboring provinces of the city. Ho Chi Minh City such as: Dong Nai, Binh Duong, Long An ... have returned to work when businesses return to operate in the new normal state.

According to Mr. Tan, from now until the end of the year, if enterprises increase their normal operating capacity as before the epidemic, a labor shortage is expected, but not at a serious level. Currently, the city also allows the reopening of commercial service sectors, contributing to attracting workers working in the informal sector back to work.

Mr. Tan also said that if the epidemic situation continues to be best controlled, the city's human resource demand in the first quarter of 2022 is expected to need about 75,000 jobs for the development and expansion of production scale. business.

In Dong Nai, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Hien, Director of the provincial Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, informed that during and after the fourth epidemic, the number of workers moving from Dong Nai to other provinces was estimated at 50,000. - 60,000 people, mainly concentrated in the South Central, South West, and Central Highlands provinces.

“Currently, businesses in the area have a need to employ about 35,000 - 40,000 workers, but it is quite difficult to recruit to meet this demand. Especially at the end of the year, employees are still afraid to return to work because the epidemic situation has not been completely controlled, "said Ms. Hien.

According to Ms. Hien, the industries with great demand for labor are: Textile, garment, leather and footwear, wood processing, and electronics. Some enterprises have great labor demand such as: Taekwang Vina Joint Stock Company needs 5,000 workers; Chang Shin Vietnam Company needs 2,000 employees; Longwell Company needs 3,300 employees…

Thus, the shortage of large numbers of laborers will continue in the fourth quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022, making the process of restoring business operations more difficult.

In Binh Duong, Mr. Pham Van Tuyen, Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs also said that up to now, Binh Duong has 750,000 workers returning to work (accounting for 71% of the total number of employees). At the end of April 2021, in industrial zones, 87% of workers have returned to work). It is expected that by the end of November, more than 1 million workers will return to work.

Currently, enterprises returning to production under the epidemic prevention and control plan (3 green, 3 on-site, 3 on-site changed to 3 green) have not yet used up the number of employees according to their capacity.

Mr. Tuyen forecast that the labor market situation in Binh Duong province will not have a serious labor shortage in December 2021 and the first quarter of 2022. Recruitment demand of enterprises will increase sharply from the second quarter of 2022 in case the Covid-19 epidemic is effectively controlled.

In order to facilitate the connection of labor market information in the new situation, Binh Duong province deploys the application of information technology to connect labor market information and support workers to find jobs.

Specifically, collect vacancies, update recruitment information of enterprises and job search needs of workers into the labor supply - demand database through the website. At the same time, organize online job sessions, not only within the province, but also connect with all provinces with labor resources through the system of Employment Service Centers.