Spatial distribution of employment opportunities in the new context [Vietnamese language]

Date

2015

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Centre for Analysis and Forecasting

Abstract

Spatial districbution of employment opportunities receives a growing attention among policy makers in the new context of growth slowdown and increasing international integration in Vietnam. However, studies on this topic are rare. This has motivated the implementation of this study, which aims to look into major trends and features of spatial distribution of employment opportunities in Vietnam over more than a decade. In this study, data of Enterprise Census, which were collected by the General Statistical Office annually during the period from 2000 to 2013 were analyzed. It is found that combined shares of manufacturing and services in total formal employment exhibit increasing trend, being mostly concentrated in the greater Hanoi and Hochiminh City areas. In the new context when labor costs in these growth poles rise while their connectivity with other parts of the country has significantly been improved thanks to rapid expansion of hard and soft infrastructures, employment in manufacturing is shifting away from these poles, thus creating more opportunities for low-­‐skilled workers in periphery provinces to participate in the growth process. In the opposite direction, employment in services is increasingly concentrated in these two megacities of Vietnam, presumably due to the agglomeration effects. Furthermore, behind such features of spatial distribution of employment are medium and large firms, in domestic private sector (in the case of services) and in foreign sector (in the case of manufacturing). At the national level, the degree of agglomeration is higher in manufacturing than in services, presumably indicating a higher level of external economies in the former than the latter. In the context of Vietnam’s further integration into the global economy, notably under the forthcoming Trans Pacific Partnership agreement, this trend may persist for some time. This indicates that it is important for the Government to have policies that facilitate industrial clusters to generate larger effects of external economies.

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