Strategic HR & Payroll Management in Vietnam: Adapting to a Dynamic Workforce
Published: July 2025Vietnam’s labor force is undergoing major demographic shifts, evolving labor demands, and changing employee expectations. To build a skilled, tech-savvy workforce aligned with national development goals, the government has introduced key legal and policy reforms to enhance education and protect workers' rights. The Strategic HR & Payroll Management in Vietnam: Adapting to a Dynamic Workforce magazine provides essential insights to help businesses refine their strategies, stay compliant and competitive, and boost employee satisfaction.
Despite ongoing global challenges, Vietnam’s rapid economic growth has maintained a strong pace with a 7.09 percent GDP increase in 2024 and 7.52 percent in the first six months of 2025, marking its fastest first-half growth in 15 years.
The high-growth trend has significantly boosted employment and driven the gradual shift of Vietnam’s job market toward the manufacturing and service industries. In the first half of 2025, Vietnam’s workforce aged 15 and older reached 53 million, an increase of over 542,600 compared to the previous year.
However, Vietnam faces several challenges, especially the gap in labor quality, with only 29 percent of workers having formal training. Although this gap has narrowed in recent years, the government continues to implement new measures to align vocational training with market needs, aiming to increase the trained labor force to 75 percent and reduce urban unemployment to below four percent by 2030.
As Vietnam’s labor market undergoes significant change, the rising contribution of Generation Z (Gen Z) is bringing fresh perspectives and lifestyles to the workforce. Vietnamese employees now prefer a hybrid approach of office and remote work, seek meaningful careers, and are open to new opportunities. They are also quick to adopt emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) to improve their work performance and quality.
In this dynamic environment, companies are encouraged to adjust their HR and payroll strategies to meet the evolving needs of the workforce. Technology can play a valuable role in helping businesses enhance HR and payroll management, as well as gain insights into employee preferences to improve talent recruitment and retention.
To assist companies in adapting to these changes, the Strategic HR & Payroll Management in Vietnam: Adapting to a Dynamic Workforce magazine compiles and analyzes key data on Vietnam’s labor force, introduces strategies for attracting and retaining talent, and outlines important legal and policy updates for 2025.
In this guide:
- Vietnam’s Rapidly EvolvingEmployment Landscape
- Strategic Approaches to HR andPayroll Management in Vietnam
- Working in Vietnam: Policy andLegal Considerations for 2025