Many manufacturing enterprises said that after half a year of mass cuts, the number of unemployed workers in the coming time increased due to daily orders.
increasingly reduced.
Hoang, a carpenter in a timber factory in Kon Tum in March, was announced to quit his job because of Covid-19. Business owners promise to recruit again later. At the beginning of July, Hoang called and asked the company, saying “it is still difficult because export orders have not come back yet.”
“I continued to write a job application for a company specializing in making screws in District 7 (Ho Chi Minh City) but did not reach it, so I went to my hometown to do farming,” said Hoang.
Mr. Thang, the owner of a timber business in Ho Chi Minh City, understands this situation of laborers like Hoang. He said, previously the export orders at his company accounted for 70%. But since the onset of the epidemic, he was forced to suspend the factory for export and leave more than 60% of the company’s employees to quit his job and the rest to work at a domestic factory.
“The domestic market is still operating moderately, so revenue and profit are only enough to pay for income workers,” Thang said.
Luckier than Hoang, Sang, who is from Ha Tinh, the manager of the shoe sole department at PouYuen Company (Binh Tan District, Ho Chi Minh City) has been announced to quit his job despite having been with this business for nearly 10 years.
“Previously, the board of directors announced that I would give a series of breaks, but I do not think I fell for myself because I went to the management level. Although the company subsidized about 70 million and is about to receive an additional 40 million. Unemployment benefits from insurance, I still struggle, “Mr. Sang said.
Unable to apply for a job at other businesses in the same industry because they are also reducing staffing, Sang signed up to ride a motorbike. For non-professional jobs, the recruiting salary is only 5-6 million dong, according to Sang, which is not enough for families with 2 children.
“If you want a stable job, you will have to wait a long time,” Sang said.
PouYuen Company workers after work. Image: Le Tuyet.
Not only are these workers “victims” of Covid-19, but according to surveys of most industry associations, the last 6 months of the unemployment will increase. Many businesses give VnExpress know to reduce 20-30% of personnel in the first half. Particularly, enterprises with orders reduced by 70% have “cut hand” to cut staff in half to maintain operations. A small number of others have closed their operations.
According to Mr. Nguyen Chanh Phuong – Vice Chairman cum General Secretary of Ho Chi Minh City Association of Fine Arts and Wood Processing (HAWA), in the timber business, the average staff reduction is 20-30%. Since April, countries that are major markets of Vietnam’s timber industry such as the US, Japan, and the EU have all announced cancellation, reduction, and indefinite postponement of signed orders. The group of enterprises producing furniture items, such as beds and expensive furniture, leveled off. Therefore, in addition to reducing staff, many businesses also take breaks and spaced to avoid mass layoffs.
Along with the wood industry, the group of textiles, embroidery and knitting is suffering heavy losses and impacts. Mr. Pham Xuan Hong, Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City Embroidery Association, confided that textile enterprises from big to small are increasingly “absorbing”.
If in early February, orders dropped by 20-30%, now most of them fall over 50%. Many businesses turned to sewing masks but did not “lose” because the products sold were not as expected and are leveling off.
For small businesses, the situation of masking inventories is a difficult problem to solve because domestic consumption is slow and in the world, markets such as the US and Europe are “frozen”.
Hong said that the Japanese market is better, but the forecast from now to the end of the year is also difficult. The rate of employees in textile, embroidery and knitting enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City quitting the job is 25-30%. This level is likely to increase to 40% by the end of 2020.
Mr. Truong Dinh Hoe, General Secretary of Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers, said that seafood orders are gradually improving, but the percentage of enterprises giving workers to resign in this industry accounts for about 20%. Many businesses are experiencing serious revenue declines.
According to the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, by the end of the second quarter, the number of unemployed people increased to about 1.5 million, an increase of more than 200,000 compared to the previous quarter.
When cutting back, some businesses have significant subsidies supported. However, for small and odd businesses, this support level is not much and not even because the company itself is “exhausted”. According to Mr. Hoe, the seafood business is inherently not profitable, so most of the time when workers quit, there will be no subsidies from the business.
To create jobs for workers and help businesses overcome difficultiesMr. Nguyen Chanh Phuong said that wood enterprises should be proactive in domestic raw materials, reduce prices, use e-commerce transactions, sell goods online …
In particular, focus on researching and building Vietnamese timber brands for wood and forest products manufactured from legal raw materials, with sustainable forest management certificates to gradually affirm the prestige and position. of Vietnamese wood products in domestic and international markets.
With the textile and seafood industry, leaders of the two associations said that businesses need to find alternative markets. For key markets, it is necessary to create competitiveness with rivals heavily affected by Covid-19 but not controlled to increase market share.
