The 2009 economic decline forced 280 businesses in Ho Chi Minh City to lay off 53,000 workers and put another 16,000 on a part-time basis. Even though 80 percent of these people have found jobs again, the city’s unemployment rate remains at 5.45 percent.
In 2010, the municipal Department for Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs will closely monitor the employment rate in businesses, fine violators, build a network for updating information on the labour market and promote activities related to job centres and vocational consultancy and training.
The department will also continue to assist redundant workers in difficulties due to the economic downturn and launch a campaign to raise workers’ awareness of the labour laws, especially the unemployment insurance policy.
In 2009, five entrepreneurs fled HCM City and ‘abandoned’ 750 workers with salary debts amounting to VND1.7 billion. There were also several labour disputes but the number of these cases dropped considerably from 2008.