According to the report on the status and trends of the implementation of unemployment insurance policies associated with job creation work issued by the Hanoi Employment Service Center, in the period of 2021-2024, based on the general trend, it shows a positive picture, but when analyzing in depth the gender structure, the capital's labor market shows an important internal restructuring.
According to the Hanoi Employment Service Center, in 2021, female workers were much more affected, with the number of unemployed people nearly 15,000 higher than men.
However, since 2022, the situation has completely reversed, the number of unemployed male workers is significantly higher than that of female workers. This gap remained large throughout the entire period afterwards. This reversal is not random, but reflects the uneven recovery speed between different economic sectors.
After the pandemic, in Hanoi, different economic regions will have different recovery speeds. Some industries that focus on female workers such as services, retail, tourism, and export production industries such as garment and footwear are industries that are directly and immediately affected by the expansion. However, these are also the industries with the strongest impact immediately after the economy reopens, thanks to the recovery of domestic consumption and international orders.
On the contrary, many industries that focus on men's labor such as construction, real estate, manufacturing and manufacturing have to face a longer period of difficulties afterwards, due to problems related to the corporate bond market, congested credit, and the slowdown of investment projects.
Some female workers have changed their search behavior. After losing their jobs during the pandemic, some female workers may have decided to temporarily or permanently leave the workforce to focus on family care, so they are no longer listed in the "professional" group. When entering the recovery phase, while female workers quickly regain their jobs, male workers have to face a secondary, longer crisis.
This reversal shows that future employment support policies need to be more flexible and sensitive to market beliefs. Instead of general policies, there should be support programs, retraining and vocational conversion designed specifically, targeting male workers in industries facing structural difficulties such as construction and manufacturing, said the Hanoi Employment Service Center.
Regarding the structure of unemployment by area, the number of unemployed people in urban areas is always many times higher than in rural areas, accounting for 70% to nearly 80% of the total. This difference reflects structural factors: The attraction of urban areas and the nature of the economy. As an economic and administrative center, Hanoi's urban area always has a special attraction, attracting a large number of workers from rural areas and mountainous provinces. This creates an abundant labor supply, leading to a much fiercer competition than in rural areas.
In addition, the urban economy is mainly the formal economy (enterprises, state agencies), where unemployment is clearly recorded in the unemployment rate. On the contrary, in rural areas, a part of unemployed labor in the formal sector can be temporarily "absorbed" in the informal sector or family economy, agriculture, and therefore is recognized as a shortage of work or employment but low productivity, instead of complete unemployment.
