Nearly 3,000 workers laid off by 27 HCMC firms

Le Van Thinh, director of the HCMC of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, said at a Saturday meeting of the HCMC People’s Committee that the number of enterprises laying off employees this year was similar to last year, which was significantly lower than 2019 (74) and 2020 (86).

"The department has coordinated with other units to connect supply and demand between enterprises that have laid off employees and enterprises that need human resources," Thinh said.

For instance, on November 10-11, the HCMC Center for Employment Services was able, in coordination with the Cu Chi District Labor Department, to find jobs for 770 people who were laid off by footwear manufacturer Vietnam Samho Co. Ltd.

Thinh said the department was coordinating with Binh Tan District and the Labor Union to find jobs for 1,185 people laid off by Ty Hung Trading Co. Ltd.

The department will also coordinate with localities that have many factories and enterprises to monitor those with more than 50 employees to ensure their health, salary and bonus payment plans, he added.

Nguyen Ho Thien Nhan, Deputy General Secretary of the HCMC Business Association (Huba), said at the meeting that many textile and garment companies have had to cut labor and reduce production because they lacked orders.

Orders were plentiful from the fourth quarter of 2021 to the end of July this year as demand surged after the pandemic situation improved. However, demand has decreased significantly since then, corresponding to decreased consumption in the main export markets of the textile and garment industry such as the US and EU because of high inflation.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict has also greatly affected logistics and material costs. Vietnam's textile and garment exports to Russia typically account for 90-95% of the Eurasian region, but after the conflict began, this dropped 40-42% year-on-year.

Vietnamese enterprises are facing several other potentially loss-inflicting difficulties including rising oil prices, sharp increase in the dollar value and high bank interest rates.

Major General Le Hong Nam, HCMC Police Chief, said that workers who lost their jobs in neighboring areas tend to move to HCMC, looking for ways to earn some income, leading to several security problems.

He noted that black credit, the lending of money at usurious interest rates, is predicted to rise until the end of the year as people struggle to make ends meet.

"The city police have just raided a law consulting office in District 12 with 220 employees on duty to collect debts related to black credit," Nam said.

Chairman of HCMC People's Committee Phan Van Mai asked the municipal labor department to closely monitor the situation of employment and social security.

Currently, HCMC has nearly 249,000 enterprises with more than 4.9 million employees. Of these, nearly 2.5 million people have participated in social insurance schemes, an increase of 345,000 compared to last year and an increase of 100,000 people compared to the first six months of this year.

This year, the city has created jobs for about 315,500 people, reaching 105.1% of the year plan. In the first 10 months of this year, 128,647 people in HCMC have received unemployment benefits, an increase of 27% compared to the same period in 2021.