The Labor Market and the COVID-19 Outbreak in Vietnam : Impacts and Lessons Learned for Social Protection
This note summarizes the impacts of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak on Vietnam’s labor market in 2020 and evaluates the social protection response to identify lessons learned for future crises. Vietnam’s labor market was shaken by...
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/858691625204880380/The-Labor-Market-and-the-COVID-19-Outbreak-in-Vietnam-Impacts-and-Lessons-Learned-for-Social-Protection http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35990 |
| Summary: | This note summarizes the impacts of the
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak on Vietnam’s
labor market in 2020 and evaluates the social protection
response to identify lessons learned for future crises.
Vietnam’s labor market was shaken by the outbreak in 2020.
But an effective containment strategy and a resilient
economy mitigated the impact on Vietnam’s labor market,
allowing for recovery in the second half of 2020. Vietnam
deployed social protection measures to mitigate the impacts
on households and firms from disruptions to the labor market
that included a package of income support and wage subsidies
for households and firms. Fairly strict targeting and
eligibility requirements and implementation challenges meant
that policy measures were not as effective as hoped. The
policy response likely overlooked some impacted groups, and
policy makers will likely have struggled to scale up the
response in case of a deeper or longer crisis. By revealing
these challenges, the COVID-19 policy response has made
clear the urgency of reforms to strengthen Vietnam’s social
protection system for both normal and crisis times. |
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