At a workshop presenting the survey results on child labor and children engaged in work in Vietnam in 2023 organized by the General Statistics Office yesterday, Director General of the General Statistics Office Nguyen Thi Huong said that 731,600 children within the 5-17 age group in Vietnam are currently involved in labor activities, out of a total population of over 20.6 million children.
Analysis reveals that a significant proportion of child labor cases in Vietnam, specifically 84.6 percent is within rural communities. Furthermore, a concentration of 52.7 percent of these cases is observed in the Northern midland and mountainous regions, the North Central region, and the Central coastal region.
The rate of children engaging in labor activities is 3.5 percent, which means that out of 100 children aged 5-17, nearly 4 children are participating in labor. This rate decreased by 5.6 percentage points compared to 2018, when the child labor participation rate was 9.1 percent. Remarkable achievements in economic growth rate and employment in the past year have contributed to reducing the rate of child labor.
The Northern Midlands and Mountainous Region have the highest child labor rate among the six socio-economic regions, with over 7 out of every 100 children engaged in labor. Following closely is the Central Highlands, where 6.4 percent of children participate in labor. In contrast, the Red River Delta reported the lowest rate, with less than 1 percent of children involved in labor.
Children participating in labor often have limited opportunities to go to school, most of the children participating in labor are not currently attending school, nationwide there are 403,200 children participating in labor who are not attending school accounting for 55.1 percent.
On the contrary, most of the children in the group of children who do not work to earn money are attending school with 98.3 percent, the proportion of children not attending school in this group is only 1.7 percent. This showed that if children have more opportunities to learn, they are less likely to participate in labor, and less likely to become child laborers.
