The Vietnam Labor Market Bulletin for the first quarter of 2026, published by the Institute of State Organization and Labor Science (Ministry of Home Affairs), shows many notable indicators on employment, unemployment, income and recruitment trends.
In the first quarter of 2026, the labor market continued to recover with many positive indicators, but the situation of young people unemployed and not participating in learning and training (NEET) increased sharply.
The whole country has about 1.6 million young people aged 15-24 who fall into the NEET group, accounting for 11.4% of the total number of young people. This number increased by 172.6 thousand people compared to Q4/2025 and increased by 212.5 thousand people compared to the same period last year.
This development occurred in the context that the general indicators of the labor market showed signs of improvement. The labor force reached 53.6 million people; the number of people with jobs was 52.5 million people, an increase of more than 656 thousand people compared to the same period last year.
The average income of workers also increased to 9 million VND/month, of which paid workers reached 10 million VND/month.
However, the youth unemployment rate is still at a high level of 8.86%, an increase of 0.9 percentage points compared to the same period last year. This is much higher than the general unemployment rate of the whole market (2.21%), clearly reflecting the difficulties in accessing employment for young workers.
The fact that a large number of young people are "outside" both the labor market and the education - training system is posing an urgent requirement for policies to support transition from learning to working, improve skills and create suitable job opportunities for the young labor force.
