Viet Nam Puts Older Workers at the Heart of a New Plan for Jobs, Skills and Care

The scheme builds on the national strategy on older persons approved in February 2025, which recognizes older citizens as an important part of economic and social life.

Viet Nam is preparing for an older population with a plan that puts employment, skills and income security at the centre of how the country responds to ageing. As it marks the International Day of Older Persons on 1 October, a cooperation scheme covering 2026 to 2031 sets out how international expertise, including support from the International Labour Organization (ILO), can help older people continue contributing through work that offers decent conditions and protection. The decision taken by the Vietnamese Prime Minister on 3 September addresses growing pressure on labour supply and social security, alongside the gradual development of a care economy suited to the country's needs.

Older people's contribution gains stronger backing

The scheme builds on the national strategy on older persons approved in February 2025, which recognizes older citizens as an important part of economic and social life. That strategy sets a target for at least half of older people who want to work and are able to do so to have jobs by 2030, bringing attention to the opportunities available to people who wish to remain economically active. Meeting that target will require attention to job quality, working conditions and the support people need to participate as they grow older.

A legal foundation comes from the Law on Population, No. 113/2025/QH15, adopted by the National Assembly on 10 December 2025 and effective from 1 July 2026. The law commits the State to supporting older people in work, employment and social security, as well as their participation in start-ups, economic development and digital transformation. These commitments recognize that older citizens can contribute knowledge, experience and enterprise, with access to opportunities and protection shaping how fully they can take part.

Changing jobs call for learning at every age

Population ageing is already reflected in the workforce, with approximately 2.6 million people aged 65 and above working in 2024, according to the National Statistics Office. Its 2025 figures indicate that more than one in five Vietnamese people will be over 60 within a decade, marking the country's official transition into an aged society. Those numbers make decent working conditions and adequate social protection an immediate concern for people already earning a living in later life, as well as for future generations of older workers.

Digitalization, artificial intelligence, global economic integration and the move towards a greener economy are changing the skills that jobs demand, making access to learning essential throughout people's working lives. The new scheme looks to the ILO for support on labour market policies, longer working lives, reskilling, lifelong learning, age-inclusive workplaces and older workers' protection. Employers' willingness to recruit, train and retain older staff will help determine whether experience remains an asset as workplace requirements change.

Secure incomes and decent care work matter

Wider pension and social insurance coverage will be essential to income security in older age, with benefits that remain adequate and systems that can be sustained as the population changes. Older people also have a role in the emerging care economy as peer supporters and community-based service providers for other older citizens, drawing on their experience alongside receiving care themselves. Making those opportunities worthwhile requires proper training, decent care jobs and social protection for the people delivering services.

Sinwon Park, Director of the ILO Country Office for Viet Nam, welcomed the decision as an important step in preparing for an aged society, pointing to the ILO's decades of cooperation with the Government. She emphasized access to decent jobs, opportunities to update skills and adequate social protection as priorities for people living and working longer, and confirmed the organization's readiness to help put the scheme into practice. That support connects Viet Nam's preparations for ageing with the everyday needs of older workers seeking reliable incomes, respectful workplaces and opportunities to keep contributing.