Workers apply for jobs everywhere but are not accepted
Ms. Bui Ngoc Lan is currently renting a house in Dai Mo ward (Hanoi) with a friend.
For the past 4 months, Ms. Lan has only stayed at home, living on the support money of her parents in the countryside, during the period as she said "assistently looking for a job".
Graduated in Economics (Hanoi University of Business and Technology) in 2023, Ms. Lan works for an electronics center in Phuong Liet ward (Hanoi). After the Lunar New Year 2025, Ms. Lan lost her job due to difficult business conditions and the company cut staff. In April 2025, Ms. Lan applied to work as a sales staff at an English center in Ha Dong ward. In early August 2025, she was laid off because she did not achieve the minimum sales requirements.
I have submitted applications everywhere for the past 4 months. There are some places that call me for interviews, but I was criticized by businesses for saying that my experiences are nearly applicable to work at the company. I plan to stay until the end of the new year, if I can't find a job, I will return to my hometown. In my hometown, there is really no job that suits the major I have studied, but I just come back to save money on rent, food and living expenses in the city and then think about it, Ms. Lan shared.
Mr. Nguyen Van Manh has been a security guard at an agricultural wholesale market in Ha Dong ward) since 2020. In September 2024, Mr. Manh lost his job because after the bidding, the company where he worked was no longer supported by the old market.
For unskilled workers like us, losing a job is running out of money. To have money to spend on living expenses, I applied to work as a security guard at a parking lot in Ha Dong ward. After working for more than half a year, I lost my job because the parking lot was confiscated to make a playground. For nearly 2 months now, I have been renting at my brother and sister-in-law's house to find a job. It is almost Tet, there are many seasonal jobs, but I have bone and joint problems so I cannot do heavy work or move around much, other jobs are difficult to ask for because I have to compete with young, healthy workers, not to mention businesses that also recruit less", Mr. Manh said sadly.
764,200 people of working age are unemployed
According to the Statistics Office, the number of unemployed people of working age in the third quarter of 2025 is 696,500 people. The rate of unemployment among working-age people in the third quarter of 2025 is 1.50%, of which urban areas are 1.26%; rural areas are 1.66%.
In the first 9 months of 2025, the number of unemployed people of working age is 764,200 people. The rate of unemployment among working-age people is 1.65%, of which the rate of unemployment in urban areas is 1.24%, the rate of unemployment in rural areas is 1.92%.
The unemployment rate for young people (from 15-24 years old) in the third quarter of 2025 was 9.03%, up 0.84 percentage points compared to the previous quarter and up 1.30 percentage points compared to the same period last year. The unemployment rate for young people (from 15-24 years old) in the first nine months of 2025 is 8.38%, an increase of 0.47 percentage points over the same period last year.
Talking to Lao Dong reporter, Mr. Le Quang Trung - former Deputy Director in charge of the Department of Employment - said that currently, efforts to solve employment for young people and young workers face many difficulties.
Mr. Trung said that resources for programs and projects to support job creation for young people are currently limited; the rate of trained youth workers is higher than the national average but not significantly. In addition, a part of the youth have a weak sense of discipline and industrial style; many young workers lack soft skills and working skills.
"Unemployment of young people, especially the 15-24 age group, is a challenge for the Vietnamese economy. Compared to the world and the region, the unemployment rate in Vietnam is not a serious problem, but the high unemployment rate among young people also reflects that the connection between youth labor supply and demand is not really effective" said Mr. Trung.
