According to current regulations, employees are entitled to a subsidy of 60% of the average monthly salary for paying unemployment insurance for the 6 consecutive months before leaving work. Because most workers pay the minimum, they actually receive only about 4 million VND/month.
Low actual salary for unemployment insurance
Ms. Phan Thi Hoai Thu is an administrative - human resource employee at a technology corporation in Cau Giay ward (Hanoi). Every month, Ms. Hoai's total income is about 16 million VND, but her salary for unemployment insurance is 7 million VND/month.
In March 2025, Ms. Thu was among nearly 60 employees who were cut because the AI application company replaced many stages and jobs of administrative staff.
Losing her job at the age of 45, Ms. Thu was both worried and confused. "I was worried because my family's income from now on has been reduced by half because my salary and my husband's are the same. The problem is not knowing how to start applying for a job at this age, whether any company accepts 45-year-old female workers or not," Ms. Thu recounted.
After 1 month of asking acquaintances and friends to introduce her but not being able to find a new job, Ms. Thu registered to apply for unemployment benefits.
After submitting an application for unemployment insurance, according to regulations, Ms. Thu must directly notify the Hanoi Employment Service Center every month about her job search.
What Ms. Thu felt most disappointed about was that she only received a subsidy of 4.2 million VND per month. With this amount of money, Ms. Thu cannot afford to pay for monthly market travel.
"I was extremely confused because I had to balance about 20 million VND for my family of 4 to spend and live, and my 2 daughters were in high school," said Ms. Thu.
"Bad" more miserable than Ms. Thu, Mr. Dam Duc Tung lost his job in April 2025 while working as a worker in Thien Loc commune (Hanoi). After completing the procedures to receive unemployment insurance, the actual amount he received was 3.6 million VND/month. Renting a house, burdened by his wife giving birth, Mr. Tung has just received unemployment insurance and borrowed from his paternal and maternal families to have money to cover his expenses while looking for a new job.
Ms. Thu and Mr. Tung are only 2 out of hundreds of thousands of workers who have decided to receive unemployment benefits in the first months of 2025. According to statistics from the Ministry of Home Affairs, in just the first 5 months of 2025, the total number of people with unemployment benefits decisions was 240,864 people.
In Hanoi alone, in October 2025 alone, the number of people applying for unemployment benefits was 6,531, the number of people with unemployment benefit decisions was 5,300. Regarding the structure of workers receiving subsidies, female workers account for the majority with about 61.1% of the total number of people approved to pay. In terms of age, the golden age group of workers (from 25-40 years old) is the group with the largest proportion, with 3,403 people.
"Hard" procedures, workers are not interested in vocational training
According to Mr. Tran Tuan Tu, Head of the Unemployment Insurance Department, Department of Employment (Ministry of Home Affairs), according to current regulations, employees are entitled to a subsidy equal to 60% of the average monthly salary for unemployment insurance contributions for the 6 consecutive months before leaving work, but not exceeding 5 times the basic salary or regional minimum wage. This rate is not low, but because most workers only pay the minimum allowance (about 6 million VND/month), the actual receipt is usually only 3 - 4 million VND/month.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan Huong - former Director of the Institute of Social Labor Science commented that unemployment insurance at only 3 - 4 million VND/month is too low compared to the current price level, especially living conditions in big cities. If we say that unemployment insurance is a " sustenance" when workers are in need, then in reality, this support is not solid because the actual number of unemployment insurance receipts is too low, if workers have more burden of raising children and renting a house, the money will not be in any way.
Ms. Huong also pointed out the reality that right after losing their job, in parallel with completing procedures to receive unemployment insurance, workers will worry about finding new jobs or immediately do freelance work to earn more income. Therefore, the vocational training policy for workers receiving unemployment insurance is not close to reality and does not really create motivation for workers.
"Imagine a male worker who loses his job while being a pillar of the family, he will worry about driving a motorbike taxi, working for hire... to earn money to take care of himself or his family, but if he has the conditions to register to study a trade for a few months, then not sure where he will find a job after studying, what income... In essence, the allowance from unemployment insurance is not enough for workers to maintain their lives, so the vocational training policy "attached" is not a concern for anyone. In addition, the content and methods of vocational training are not really linked to market demand, encouraging workers to learn a trade and improve their skills, said Ms. Huong.
Another difficulty for unemployed workers is that many people have difficulty submitting unemployment benefits applications through the Public Service Portal due to many shortcomings in the system, leading to the majority of direct payment rates. In addition, workers having to go directly to the employment service center to inform about job search makes many workers bored. Some cases are exempted from authorization for others to submit documents or send documents by post if they are one of the following cases: Sickness, maternity confirmed by a competent medical facility; accidents confirmed by traffic police or a competent medical facility; fires, floods, earthquakes, sunns, epidemics, epidemics confirmed by the Chairman of the People's Committee of a commune, ward or town.
As of the end of 2024, the Unemployment Insurance Fund has a accumulated balance of more than 64,300 billion VND; about 16 million workers participate, accounting for 34% of the working age force.
To date, the total number of people receiving unemployment benefits is more than 10 million people. In the period of 2009-2024, the total number of people supported with vocational training is 316,507 people.
