VNExpress-Sept 9
Vietnamese workers spent an average of VND125.7 million (US$4,835) in 2025 to take up jobs abroad, equivalent to 4.5 months of their first overseas income, and more than half of them had to borrow money to cover it. Costs have fallen 23.8% from VND164.9 million ($6,340) in 2021, according to analysis released Sept. 8 by the National Statistics Office with technical support from the International Organization for Migration.
Average first-month income abroad rose 25.4% over the same period, from VND22.4 million ($860) to VND28.1 million ($1,080). Nguyen Thi Ngoc Lan of the office’s Population and Labor Statistics Division said a first month’s wage abroad runs 3.3 times the average income of a worker at home, which is VND8.5 million ($327). Payments to recruitment companies and individual brokers take 52.8% of what a worker spends, an average of VND94.5 million ($3,635) among those who paid them. Training and document preparation account for 33.7%, travel 11.1% and other expenses 2.3%. Three markets: Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, which together take 76.7% of Vietnamese workers going abroad, carry the highest costs.
Workers heading to Japan paid an average of VND140.8 million ($5,415) in 2025, those going to South Korea VND139.4 million ($5,360) and those to Taiwan VND130.2 million ($5,010). Other destinations averaged nearly VND86 million ($3,310). Lan said costs climb as education levels fall, with one group paying as much as VND155.6 million ($5,985). By skill level, medium-skilled workers paid around VND143 million ($5,500), low-skilled workers VND109 million ($4,190) and high-skilled workers just under VND68 million ($2,615). Some 53.9% of those surveyed borrowed to cover the fees. The statistics office cautioned that this part of the study, which drew on 3,596 migrant workers across six provinces and cities, used non-probability sampling and does not represent all Vietnamese workers abroad. Elementary occupations account for 33% of Vietnamese working abroad, craft and related trades about 24%, and machine and equipment operation 16%. Workers with a college diploma or higher earn an average of VND42.6 million ($1,640) in their first month, those with elementary or intermediate vocational training VND27.6 million ($1,060), high school graduates VND26 million ($1,000) and lower secondary graduates about VND22 million ($845). Read more at:
