Talking to Lao Dong reporters on February 18, Mr. Le Quang Trung - former Deputy Director in charge of the Department of Employment predicted that in 2026, the Vietnamese labor market will have clear changes in the qualification requirements for candidates. Accordingly, businesses will no longer prioritize recruiting seasonal workers and unskilled workers but will strongly switch to searching for human resources with high qualifications, skills and adaptability.
Because of the new requirements, 2026 opens up many opportunities for workers with clear professional competence, practical experience and the ability to work independently. Positions requiring high skills, management skills, and technological thinking will continue to have stable recruitment demand. The demand for recruiting skilled workers will account for about 60% of the total market demand," Mr. Le Quang Trung affirmed.
Also according to Mr. Trung, the reality of the labor market shows that the process of digital transformation, automation and restructuring of the production - business model is causing rapid changes in labor demand. Many simple job positions are gradually being replaced by machines and software, while positions requiring professional skills, digital thinking, technology operation capabilities and multitasking are increasingly being valued. This means that the labor market is not narrowing in the number of jobs, but is "raising standards" for workers.
On the business side, instead of recruiting a large number of unskilled workers as before, they are willing to reduce the scale of personnel but increase requirements for skills, labor discipline and work productivity.
The trend of prioritizing high-quality labor also poses challenges for labor, especially middle-aged workers, untrained workers and young workers newly entering the market.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Home Affairs, in 2025, the national labor force reached about 53.2 million people. The unemployment rate in the working age group is 2.22% (down 0.03% compared to the previous year); the unemployment rate in the working age group is 1.65% (down 0.34 percentage points compared to the same period last year).
The rate of trained workers with degrees and certificates in Q4/2025 is 29.5%, an increase of 0.2 percentage points compared to the previous quarter and an increase of 0.9 percentage points compared to the same period last year. In general, in 2025, the rate of trained workers with degrees and certificates is 29.2%, an increase of 0.8 percentage points.
