Employment change in agriculture: Current situation and difficulties in the process of economic structural transformation in the Northern midlands and mountainous regions in Vietnam

Abstract

Employment change of workers is both an inevitable trend along with the process of economic restructuring and a need of workers themselves when they want to find new and better jobs. Based on analysis data from the labor and employment survey for the period 2016- 2022 and a case study in Thach An district, Cao Bang province, shows that the job conversion trend of agricultural workers here is quite clear, both moving strongly to urban areas to find jobs in non-agricultural sectors and converting to jobs within the agricultural sector. Most of those who choose to stay in their hometowns to do farming have stopped producing for self-sufficiency and have switched to producing goods for sale, besides, they also choose other ways of livelihood to increase their incomes such as doing extra work and doing side jobs. However, the job transition here is slower than in other regions in terms of both level and quality due to many difficulties, including from the readiness and initiative of workers as well as policies for the labor market and other objective factors. From there, the article makes some recommendations to promote labor transition for rural people in the Northern midlands and mountainous areas.