Tens of thousands of Vietnamese factory workers have been laid off.

Almost half a million others have been forced to work fewer hours as orders fall in the southeast Asian country, one of the world’s largest exporters of clothing, footwear and furniture.The cost-of-living crisis in Europe and the United States -- major markets for Vietnamese-produced goods -- has seen the buying power of Western shoppers plunge.Women factory workers, who make up 80 percent of the labour force in Vietnam’s garment industry, have been hit the hardest.

Since September 2022, more than 1,200 companies -- mostly foreign businesses in the garment, footwear and furniture sectors -- have been forced to sack staff or cut working hours. Compared with last year, orders are down 30 per cent to 40 percent from the United States and 60 percent from Europe, where inflation and energy bills have soared because of the war in Ukraine.More than 4,70,000 workers have had their hours slashed in the last four months of the year while about 40,000 people have lost their jobs -- 30,000 of them women aged 35 or older.

The slowdown has come as a shock because export businesses in Vietnam were running at full capacity for the first half of 2022.