Young workers do not work enough during the day, taking advantage of working at night
Instead of waiting for wages to increase, many young workers actively find part-time jobs, work remotely or receive jobs based on products to increase income and cover living expenses in large cities.
Unlike the group of workers who receive salaries based on products or productivity, most full-time office workers receive income mainly from fixed salaries. In the context of constantly increasing living costs in major cities, this salary level is often only enough to meet minimum needs.
Joining the labor market exactly one year after graduating, Tran Khanh Ly (23 years old, from Phu Tho; currently renting a room in My Dinh ward, Hanoi) said that she always has to calculate carefully to balance her total income of about 8 million VND per month.
I just switched to another job about 1 month ago, not yet receiving the new base salary increase. Previously, I received a grade 1 salary, coefficient 2.34, after deducting social insurance expenses, the actual hard salary received was only about 4.9 million VND/month. Meanwhile, the rent of the two sisters, including electricity, water and accompanying expenses, has reached about 5 million VND/month. Summer when using air conditioning a lot, this amount can be up to 5.5 million VND", Khanh Ly shared.
In addition to rent, Ly has to spend on essential living expenses such as food, gasoline, delivery fees, coffee... with a total cost of about 500,000 VND/week. To maintain her life in Hanoi, Khanh Ly is forced to do 2-3 extra jobs outside of office hours.
During the day I do my main job, in the evening and weekend I receive additional work writing content, communication or short-term projects. If I only rely on my main salary, it is very difficult to balance spending," Khanh Ly said.
Not only working part-time to increase income, Khanh Ly also has to spend a significant part on studying and improving skills. In the field of communication, updating knowledge, learning foreign languages or participating in short-term training courses is almost a mandatory requirement if you want to have promotion opportunities.
If I want to increase my income in the future, I must first invest in myself. There are foreign language courses with tuition fees equal to a month's salary, but I still have to try to study," Khanh Ly shared.
Also falling into the "working day, working night" cycle, Hoang Minh Tuyen (25 years old, from Quang Ninh; currently living in Cau Giay ward, Hanoi) said that the total monthly income is about 10 million VND but not very abundant.
The fixed monthly amount including room rent, electricity and water is about 4 million VND. In addition, there is also money for food, travel and sports training expenses to maintain health," Minh Tuyen said.
Only essential expenses alone account for the majority of income. Besides, when friends get married one after another, expenses for weddings and funerals also become financial pressure.
To improve his income, in addition to his main job of filming, Minh Tuyen often accepts extracurricular projects or freelance jobs suitable for his expertise.
Accounting for a large proportion but tending to decrease
Regarding the trend of young workers taking on many jobs at the same time, Dr. Nguyen Viet Cuong - Independent Member of the National Wage Council, lecturer at the International School, Vietnam National University, Hanoi - citing data from the Labor and Employment Survey, said that as of 2024, the proportion of young workers aged 15-29 with two or more jobs accounted for 1.6%. This figure is slightly lower than about 2% in 2021.
According to data from the General Statistics Office (Ministry of Finance), informal employment still accounts for a large proportion, but is trending downwards. In the first 6 months of 2026, the rate of informal employment was 61.9%, down 2 percentage points compared to the same period in 2025 (63.9%).
Mr. Cuong said that young people doing extra work or taking on many jobs at the same time is no longer a new story, especially in the context of distance work, homework and freelance work becoming increasingly popular.
For freelancers, taking on multiple jobs at the same time is an understandable trend. However, for the group of stable workers, especially in businesses, the proportion of workers with more than one official job is very small," Mr. Cuong analyzed.
The trend of doing multiple jobs at the same time is not really popular among salaried workers, but mainly concentrated in part-time workers or self-employed production.
