According to the draft Project on training and fostering to improve the quality of commune-level cadres and civil servants in the 2026-2031 period, with a vision to 2040, built by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the quality of commune-level cadres and civil servants has generally improved in recent years, but there are still many shortcomings, especially in terms of compatibility between professional qualifications and job position requirements in the context of operating the two-level local government model.
As of September 2025, the whole country has 192,718 commune-level cadres and civil servants working in 3,321 communes, wards, and special zones (excluding cadres of the Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations). Among them, the Party bloc has 56,457 people, and the government bloc has 136,261 people.
According to the assessment in the draft, most commune-level cadres and civil servants currently have a university degree or higher. Civil servants working at the commune-level Military Command are allowed to have a college degree according to the provisions of the amended Law on Militia and Self-Defense Force in 2025.
However, data compiled from reports from localities shows that there is still a situation where professional civil servants are arranged not in accordance with their job positions.
There are 6,182 people out of a total of 114,834 commune-level professional civil servants with training levels that do not meet job requirements, accounting for about 5.38%.
This situation appears in many fields. At the Offices of People's Councils and People's Committees at commune level, there are 1,179/31,183 cases that are not suitable for expertise (3.78%). In the judicial field, this number is 189 cases (0.61%); the foreign affairs field has 112 cases (0.36%).
In the economic, economic - infrastructure and urban departments, some fields also recorded the proportion of civil servants not suitable for job positions such as finance - planning (0.69%), construction (0.64%), industry and trade (0.55%), agriculture (0.78%), environment - land (0.44%).
