Nearly 90% of Vietnamese textile and footwear workers may lose their jobs due to automation.

According to the International Labor Organization, 86% of Vietnamese workers in the textile, garment and footwear industries may face the risk of losing their jobs due to automation.

“What should Vietnam do to respond to changes in technology and labor skills needs?” – is the issue that many experts are interested in at the upcoming National Policy Dialogue on Employment, organized by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs in coordination with the International Labor Organization (ILO) on December 13 in Hanoi.

The risk of losing jobs due to automation

Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Hong Lan said that globalization and the technological revolution are posing increasingly great challenges to the Vietnamese economy. It is forecasted that the Vietnamese labor force will increase from 55.5 million people in 2016 to 62 million in 2025.

It is predicted that nearly 90% of textile and garment workers are at risk of losing their jobs due to automation (Illustration photo)

To meet the employment needs of workers, the economy needs to create about 650,000 more jobs every year and shifting the labor structure is still a way to increase labor productivity.

Deputy Minister Dao Hong Lan emphasized that Vietnam needs to gradually move towards the new and common trend in advanced economies, which is to increase labor productivity within the industry through technological innovation, in which the electronics and textile-footwear industries are the focus of this story.

However, the problem is that new technology trends bring opportunities, but also pose many challenges for businesses and workers. How to ensure harmony between the demand for increased labor productivity brought by automation and solving employment for a large number of workers.

According to the latest research of ILO: 86% of Vietnamese workers in the textile, garment and footwear industry may face a high risk of losing their jobs due to automation. Meanwhile, 3/4 of salaried workers in the electrical and electronic products industry may be replaced by robots.

Currently, Vietnam has yet to see the impact of technology in the workplace to the same extent as some more developed countries in the ASEAN region, as labor costs remain competitive and technology investment costs are relatively expensive.

“But the question here is not whetheryes or nobut the problem is just thatWhen“There will definitely be a shift in the coming years as technology costs decrease while labor costs increase,” said David Lamotte, ILO Deputy Director for Asia and the Pacific.

Deputy Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Hong Lan shares information at the Dialogue

How to “get ahead” of automation?

According to Mr. Vu Tien Loc, Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the automation trend is inevitable and in the coming time, if they cannot keep up with new technology, Vietnamese enterprises will not be able to compete.

What will happen if robots replace humans, while we are still proud of being a country with an abundant, cheap labor force? Mr. Vu Tien Loc said that in the next 5-10 years, the problem of solving jobs for workers will be very urgent. It is predicted that automation will lead to increased unemployment, this is a very difficult problem.

“To solve this problem, we need a comprehensive and synchronous strategy in restructuring the economy and each sector. The textile, footwear and electronics industries themselves must restructure to participate in higher value chains and become globally competitive. Because the time when we relied on simple, cheap labor is over,” said Mr. Vu Tien Loc.

Experts believe that, to solve the surplus labor (according to forecast) in the textile and footwear industry under the pressure of science and technology, the strong development of private enterprises, especially small and medium enterprises, is very important; especially in other economic sectors such as agriculture associated with high technology, services, tourism... areas in which Vietnam has advantages. From there, it is possible to attract a part of the surplus labor in the process of restructuring the textile and footwear industry or electronics.

In addition, Vietnam should improve the necessary skills for the workforce, employers and training institutions to modernize the vocational skills development system to stay ahead of changing trends in the workplace and technological innovations.

Young people should study science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as workers who study these sciences are often sought after by employers in the manufacturing sector. This is important, especially for young women, as women are more vulnerable to job loss than men as automation becomes more prevalent in the manufacturing industry./.

According to VOV