Report on labour force survey 2021

On 07^th December 2020, the Director General of General Statistics Office (GSO) issued Decision No 1750/QĐ-TCTK on the 2021 labor force survey, along with its survey plan. The purpose of the survey was to collect the information on 2021 labor market participation of people aged 15 years old and above currently residing in Vietnam regarded as a basic for aggregating and compiling national statistical indicators on labor, employment, unemployment and earnings. This result would support for ministries and branches assessing and comparing the changes in labor market among quarters within the reference year as well as with those of previous annual labor force survey conducted by GSO. These results would be also considered as a basic to develop and plan policies on human resource development; activities of investment, production and business accordant with the development trend on labor market.

In 2021, based on the recommendations of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the General Statistics Office has organized the collection and calculation of labour and employment indicators using the new conceptual framework agreed by the member states at the 19th International Conference on Labour Statistics (ICLS 19) held in October 2013 in Geneva, Switzerland. This conceptual framework is commonly referred to as the ICLS 19 standard, promulgated to replace the ICLS 13, 1982. The birth of the ICLS 19 standard was meant to replace the ICLS 13 standard in the context of strong development of science and technology, and the positive transformation to modern market economies by most countries in the world with virtually negligible dependence on subsistence products. Under the new ICLS 19 standard, those who work for the purpose of making subsistence products in the agriculture, forestry and fishery sector will not be identified as employed as previously defined by the ICLS 13. The ICLS 19 standard is recommended for worldwide use with the aim of ensuring international comparability among market economies with different levels of development globally.

As from 2021, the General Statistics Office will officially publish the labour and employment indicators based on ICLS 19 standard. Furthermore, to allow for the full assessment of the fluctuations of the labour market over time, the General Statistics Office will concurrently calculate and re-publish the labour and employment indicators using the ICLS 19 standard for all the quarters of 2019 until present as a basis for comparison. Information on workers engaged in subsistence employment in the agriculture, forestry and fishery sector is also recorded and made publicly available in this report.

This report would present major findings of labor force survey in 2021 in order to provide information on labor and employment for users. As a result of the survey coverage on labor market only relating to those people aged 15 years and old, currently residing in Vietnam at the survey period. Therefore, the indicators on labor and employment presented in this report would mainly be calculated for those persons aged 15 and above. However, to meet the needs of researching, assessing and analyzing information about the labor market and employment situation for the statutory working age (from 2020 and earlier: male from 15 to 59 and female from 15 to 54; in 2021: male from 15 to 60 years old 3 months and female from 15 to 55 years old 4 months – according to Labor Code 2019), this report would also provide some basic indicators on labor and employment for this group. Data will be integrated quarterly for the whole country and regional levels and will be integrated yearly for the provincial level.

With the technical support of the international labor organization, the labor force survey 2021 has applied recommendations of ILO on labor and employment, as the basis for study and complete survey content of next years. GSO highly appreciates the support from ILO and would like to receive for the following labor force survey.

GSO hopes the report will meet the basic information requirements of socio-economic policymakers, especially for those working in the field of labor and employment. We welcome all constructive comments from readers.

For all comments and further information, please contact the following address:

Department of Population and Labor Statistics, General Statistics Office, 54 Nguyen Chi Thanh, Dong Da district, Ha Noi.

Tel:         +(84 24)73 046 666 (ext: 6688/8886/1603)

Fax:       +(84 24) 73025656

Email:    tkdsld@gso.gov.vn

GENERAL STATISTICS OFFICE