Limitations of the 40-45 year old labor group
Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoa (Son Dong commune, Hanoi), currently working freelance in the field of media, once quit her job and applied for a job again at the age of 40. From many years of experience in media and corporate culture development, she realized that workers aged 40-45 are prone to losing their jobs but are often reluctant to learn and slow to change. According to Ms. Hoa, under pressure from AI and technological innovation, this group of workers needs to proactively improve their expertise, learn digital skills and apply AI to work to increase adaptability and avoid the risk of being eliminated.
Workers aged 40-45 have advantages in expertise and experience in handling situations, incidents, and crises. However, before the rapid development of technology and AI, this advantage is increasingly narrowing. "Workers not only need to be proficient in expertise but also need to know how to apply AI to improve productivity. At the same time, they need to continuously update knowledge, master new tools and learn more skills to become more versatile, creating greater value for businesses" - Ms. Hoa shared.
Also according to Ms. Hoa, from the perspective of business owners, instead of keeping a long-term worker with great inertia and having to pay a high salary, they are willing to replace it with a young, dynamic, creative worker who is not burdened by family responsibilities but only needs to pay a salary equal to half, even 1⁄3.
Regarding learning to improve skills for workers aged 40-45, Ms. Hoa assessed that current training activities are very diverse. To feel secure, workers can find acquaintances who already have expertise to ask for reputable training addresses. In particular, learning is also an environment that opens up many career opportunities (from networking classes that many people find better opportunities).
Having been attached to the construction demolition profession for many years, Mr. Nguyen Van Hung (45 years old, Thuong Tin commune, Hanoi) admitted that the job is enough to cover living expenses but contains many risks. Just a injury or health decline, he may lose income and find it difficult to return to work as before.
Realizing that age is no longer an advantage in his work, Mr. Hung proactively learned more skills to use construction support equipment, updated labor safety procedures and learned experience from highly skilled people to improve work efficiency.
I think workers over 40 years old must try to learn new things. Not only learn techniques but also learn how to work safer and more professionally to maintain prestige with contractors. With good skills, you still have the opportunity to be chosen" - Mr. Hung said.
Labor must prepare early and be proactive in training and accumulation.
According to Mr. Nguyen Vinh Truong - Head of Labor Market Forecast Analysis Department - Hanoi Employment Service Center, in just the first 6 months of 2026, in Hanoi City, workers receiving unemployment benefits from 40 years old and over accounted for 32.54%, this figure in the same period of 2025 was 27.83%.
Mr. Le Quang Trung - former Deputy Director in charge of the Department of Employment - analyzed that workers aged 40-45 have reached maturity in their work because they have working methods, knowledge, understanding of the law, and many people hold important positions in businesses.
However, currently and in the coming years, due to the too rapid transformation of science and technology, AI... requiring workers to meet the requirements of transformation related to science, technology, and technology. In the context that a significant part of the age group of 40-45 has not been trained before, or even if trained, it has not met the requirements, in the coming time, the possibility of job loss is very high.
Workers aged 40-45 need to proactively train and accumulate early, preferably from the age of 30-35. Each person must regularly update the market, improve skills and adapt to the new working environment" - Mr. Trung said.
Also according to Mr. Trung, looking broadly, the labor market needs medium and long-term forecasting, so that businesses, workers, and training institutions have orientations in training. "It is necessary to increase linkages between businesses and training institutions, bring engineers to teach, turn workshops into classrooms. The State also needs to support training, fostering and encouraging businesses to create jobs for middle-aged workers" - Mr. Trung expressed his opinion.
