Did a successful fight against COVID-19 come at a cost? Impacts of the pandemic on employment outcomes in Vietnam
利用2015-2020年越南劳动力调查数据，发现疫情后失业率和临时裁员率上升，月工资下降且低于最低工资的工人比例增加，加剧了工资不平等，提示需更多保护脆弱工人。
Despite its low middle-income status, Vietnam has been widely praised for its success in the fight against early waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a low mortality rate of approximately 100 deaths out of a population of less than 100 million by the end of 2020. We add to the emerging literature on COVID-19 effects on the labor market for poorer countries by analyzing rich individual-level data from Vietnam's Labor Force Surveys spanning 2015 to 2020. We find post-pandemic increases in unemployment and temporary layoff rates alongside decreases in employment quality. Monthly wages declined even as the proportion of workers receiving below-minimum wages substantially increased, contributing to sharply rising wage inequality. Our findings suggest that more resources should be allocated to protect vulnerable workers, especially as the pandemic continues to cause increasingly severe damage to the global economy.