Over 97,000 workers sent abroad in eight months

By VNA August 31, 2023 | 04:00 am PT

A training class for laborers who are about to work in Japan in Hanoi, May 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh

Vietnam sent 97,234 workers abroad in the first eight months of 2023, equivalent to over 88% of the year's target, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs reported.

Japan remains the largest recipient with 47,215 guest workers, followed by Taiwan (41,654), the Republic of Korea (1,944), mainland China (1,163), Hungary (1,002), Singapore (964), and Romania (627).

In August alone, more than 12,000 went to work overseas under contracts, including 6,076 to Japan, 4,698 to Taiwan, 200 to Hungary, 164 to Singapore, 145 to the RoK, 139 to mainland China, and 90 to Romania, statistics show.

Japan has remained the top destination of Vietnamese guest workers in recent years.

The two countries have coordinated to carry out a project helping Vietnamese workers seek suitable jobs in Japan and access employment information after returning home. They also assist businesses to seek manpower for their vacancies. To protect workers' interests in Japan, the labor ministry has also signed cooperation agreements with many Japanese prefectures such as Chiba, Saitama, Gunma, Kanagawa, and Nagano.

In 2023, aside from sustaining traditional markets like Japan, Taiwan and the RoK, the ministry has also moved to explore new ones for Vietnamese workers. In early August, it had a meeting with the Greek union of agricultural cooperatives to discuss cooperation in sending Vietnamese to work in agriculture in this country.