Employment situation of older persons in Vietnam: Impact of COVID-19 and individual coping strategies

Abstract

Providing a secured employment system is a sustainable strategy given the context of a rapid population aging in Vietnam when the country is still in the lower-middle income group and a large part of older persons are living in low socioeconomic conditions. This work aims to investigate the situation of older persons’ employment in Vietnam (employing the 2018 and 2020 Vietnam Housing and Living Standard Surveys) and the impact of COVID-19 on their employment and individual coping strategies to overcome employment difficulties (utilizing the 2021 Labour Force Survey). This study finds that older persons with retirement pension, facing health problems, and having a college degree were less likely to work after retirement age. At the household level, those living in households with fewer members and higher income are associated with higher probability of working. Meanwhile, higher level of education is associated with lower relative risk of working in agriculture for older persons. During COVID-19, older persons living in the rural area and working in agriculture are associated with lower relative risk of job loss or temporary absence. On the other hand, older persons with a university degree, using IT at work have higher relative risk of changing the working form to remote working during COVID-19. Those people are also have higher relative risk of having other solutions to cope with employment difficulties. The findings imply that improving health status and promoting pension coverage are the key factors to achieve active aging while enhancing educational level for all is a long term strategy to get employment security for the labour force, especially in case of unforeseen shocks.