Assessment of the COVID-19 Socio-Economic Impact on Vulnerable Households and Household Businesses in Viet Nam
Assessment of the COVID-19 Socio-Economic Impact on Vulnerable Households and Household Businesses in Viet Nam
June 3, 2021
The report findings highlight that: (i) Since April 2020, as a result of the pandemic, the employment of 63% surveyed households were affected (family members were laid off, had a temporary break from work, suffered from reduced working hours and work sharing. Households with businesses reported a higher percentage of employment impact compared to the average. (ii) While there was a significant recovery from May income levels, household per capita income in October 2020 was still lower than in December 2019 by 14.5 and 18.5 percentage points for all households and households with businesses respectively. (iii) As a result, the transient income poverty rate (using MOLISA’s income poverty line for the period from 2016 to 2020) of the affected population that experienced employment impact was recorded at 12.7% in October 2020 as compared to 4.9% in December 2019. Critically, 8.5% of the non-poor population in December 2019 fell into poverty in October 2020 because of the impacts of the pandemic. Finally, the implementation of preventive measures by households became less vigilant as pandemic-related health risks fell, at the same time overall rates of households using e-commerce and e-payment mechanisms as well as having family members move to new jobs increased.