Endless holidays
"This holiday is endless" is a joke of Ms. LHT. On July 18, she officially quit her job at an electronic components assembly company in Thang Long Industrial Park (Dong Anh, Hanoi).
Before signing the voluntary resignation letter, the female worker had many doubts. When she was faced with the choice of quitting or continuing her job, she remembered the days when she first went to Hanoi to look for a job.
She and her husband used to work as workers in an industrial park in their hometown of Ky Anh (Ha Tinh). However, the company was more than 30km away from home, making it extremely difficult for the couple to travel to and from work.
Traveling far away and the salary of a worker at that time was only over 4 million VND/month. After careful consideration, the couple decided to go to the capital to find a job to have a higher income. With that decision, she was forced to leave her child at home for her grandparents to look after and take care of.
Just a few days ago, they moved to Hanoi and rented an old, closed room for 700,000 VND/month. Now, they have been working at the factory and the dormitory in Thang Long Industrial Park for 5 years.
The boarding house that Ms. T. and her husband have rented for the past 5 years (Photo: Le Hoa).
Each person works for a different company. Even with overtime, the couple's income is still 16-17 million VND/month. If they are frugal and spend wisely, the female worker's family can also have some savings.
After Covid-19, everything seemed to be back to normal, but unexpectedly, the wave of reduced orders and less work spread throughout the industrial park. Both the worker couple had their working hours reduced.
However, the company where Ms. T. works is more heavily affected.
"We were able to work for 10 days, then had to take a month off. Luckily, the company still paid 70% of our basic salary. I had to find a seasonal job to earn more income," said Ms. T.
Husband changed direction to work abroad
In early 2023, due to the company having less work and workers taking long vacations, this female worker had to find seasonal work to increase her income. At that time, she could still receive a salary of 7 million VND/month.
However, after half a year, the situation became more difficult, and work tended to decrease further. At one point, she received only 5 million VND/month. And at some point, the company had to encourage workers to voluntarily quit their jobs.
"I am 8 months pregnant and have to think about whether I should continue working or not. I am worried that after my maternity leave ends, if the company still has so little work, I will not be able to work anymore," said Ms. T.
Her husband was also affected by the reduction in work. Although he still went to work every day, it was only 8 hours a day, without overtime. His income was only 5-6 million VND/month.
Meanwhile, every month they have to pay for rent, electricity, water, food in the expensive capital... and have to save a small amount to send back home.
Ms. T. said that the job reduction has been taking place since the end of 2022 (Photo: Le Hoa).
The small salary cannot cover the countless daily expenses of a worker's family.
With all these reasons, Ms. T. decided to quit her job. The day her labor contract ended was also the day her husband and she checked out and returned to their hometown.
The only things she brought back after 5 years of working were a backpack of clothes and a motorbike. The 9-hour sleeper bus ride from Hanoi to Ha Tinh was filled with thoughts for Ms. T and her husband. After 5 years, the shabby rented room and the road to the company and factory had become familiar.
Ms. Trang said: "Now I'm back in my hometown just waiting to give birth. My husband is preparing to go to Japan to work. After my maternity leave, I'll think about whether I should continue working as a factory worker or find another job."
In August, the Hanoi Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs received more than 8,000 applications for unemployment insurance benefits; assessed and decided to grant unemployment insurance benefits to 7,805 people with a total amount of more than VND212 billion.
In the Hanoi market, besides the group of businesses reducing the scale of labor use, there are still many units increasing the demand for recruiting personnel.
Hanoi Employment Service Center believes that in the last months of 2023, Northern enterprises will continue to increase labor recruitment, in Hanoi market alone, it is forecasted that 120,000 - 140,000 workers will be needed.
It is forecasted that some industries will have high recruitment demand such as: Wholesale and retail; manufacturing industry; construction...
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