Participants at the press conference (Photo:VTV)
Nam said that of those affected, 540,000 people lost their jobs and 2.8 million had to temporarily cease business and production activities.
Meanwhile, 3.1 million people said they had their hours cut or were forced to take time off from work, while 6.5 million workers reported reductions in their income.
Workers in urban areas were more severely affected than those in rural areas, with 15.6 percent of those in urban areas still affected, compared to 10.4 percent in rural areas.
Nguyen Minh Huy, deputy director of the department, said Vietnam recorded fewer workers in the first quarter of 2021 both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year. Vietnam has long posted rising numbers of workers each year.
The workforce totalled 51 million people in the quarter, down 1.1 million quarter-on-quarter and nearly 181,000 year-on-year.
The GSO said the third wave of COVID-19 in Vietnam affected the recovery of the country’s labour market, pushing a lot of people, especially women, into the informal economy.
The number of employed workers aged 15 and over in the first quarter was 49.9 million, down more than 959,000 against the previous quarter and nearly 178.000 against the same period last year.
