HANOI – Across Vietnam, confused public sector workers have been left reeling as ministries are scrapped and merged in a drastic attempt to slash billions of dollars from spending.
The ruling Communist Party aims to cut one in five public sector jobs, many of which were seen as secure positions for life.
Some employees are waiting to hear if their position will go, while others have been given less than 24 hours to decide to fight for their post or take early retirement.
The reforms, which mirror US President Donald Trump’s push to take a hatchet to government spending, are creating unease in a communist country where working for the state is seen as a cradle-to-grave social safety net.
The shake-up has been described as “a revolution” by senior officials, and will see the number of government ministries and agencies slashed from 30 to 22.
The ministries of transport, planning and investment, communications and labour have been abolished, and state media, the civil service, police and military all face cuts.
Several journalists working for state media told AFP they were laid off with little notice, with one saying he had turned to driving a taxi after his 12-year career as a TV producer was suddenly terminated last month.
Almost two million people worked in Vietnam’s public sector as of 2022, according to the government, although the International Labour Organization puts the figure much higher.
One in five of these jobs will get the chop over the next five years.
The government has said that 100,000 people will be made redundant or offered early retirement, but it has yet to explain how it will reach the much larger target.
“There are real human costs to these pushes for efficiency,” said Zachary Abuza, a Southeast Asian politics expert at the National War College in Washington, DC, explaining it was not clear if the private sector could absorb them all.
“Think about the state media folks. It’s not like there’s a robust private media for them to move into,” he added, referencing the fact that all media in Vietnam, a one-party state, is government controlled.
