Vietnam's aging population expected to work longer in future

Nguyen Thi Be, about 60, from Thai Binh province, has been living and working as a housemaid for a family in Ha Noi for nearly one decade.  Thai Binh was considered the rice granary in the north. However, Be said, the rice fields in her homeland have been left uncultivated for years. It is because farmers now cannot earn their living only on fieldwork. 

Illustrative photo. (Photo: Vietnamnet)

Be said there are many local people like her: they have left the countryside for large cities where they are easier to be hired as workers for factories or households.

Their income is just enough to cover the basic needs, but it is still higher than the income from farm work. With no social insurance, no accumulative assets and no support from children, they have to work hard in difficult conditions, and in many cases, in conflict with the laws. All official reports show that Vietnam is getting wealthier, but the numbers of people like Be has been increasing rapidly. A report of the Central Institute of Economic Management (CIEM) on the economic growth in rural areas, released in 2015, showed that rural people are getting poorer. 

In 2014, farmers’ net income was VND 51.7 million per annum, much lower than VND 84.7 million in 2012. The number of rural people unsatisfied with their lives increased by six percent, from 50.1 percent in 2012 to 56.1 percent in 2014. Pham Quang Tu from Oxfam Vietnam warned that the situation might be even gloomier. The unemployment rate among the working-age population is increasing. 

The situation is unlikely to improve as private firms are struggling in the open market and meeting difficulties in accessing capital and technology resources. If the economy does not provide enough jobs for working-age people, the numbers of older people who still have to work to earn their living will increase. It is foreseeable that the "golden population" period in Vietnam would be over in 10 years. By that time, the people at working age will become old, who, together with those losing their work capability, will be a burden on the pension fund. According to the World Bank, by 2030, nearly one fifth of the population will enter old age, while the figure would be 30 percent by 2050.