Nearly 13 million workers hurt by Covid-19

By Dat Nguyen July 6, 2021 | 03:00 am PT

Workers line up to receive supplies in a quarantine zone in the northern province of Bac Giang in May 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Hong Chieu.

Some 12.8 million workers have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in the second quarter this year, up 41 percent over the first, the General Statistics Office estimates.

These people, 75 percent of whom are in the 25-54 age group, either lost their jobs, saw their work hours reduced or income lowered because of the pandemic, according to a report released Tuesday.

Urban workers seem to have been hit harder than their rural counterparts, with 21.9 percent in cities reporting negative impacts against 14.3 percent in rural areas.

The fourth Covid-19 wave, spreading faster and proving more difficult to control, has increased job shortages in the city to 2.8 percent, compared to 2.49 percent in the countryside, the report said.

This goes against the trend in previous years when the countryside typically had higher job shortages than the cities, it added.

Nationwide unemployment rose 7.3 percent over the first quarter to 1.2 million in the second quarter, while average income fell 3.8 percent to VND6.1 million ($264) per month.