HANOI - Vietnamese workers paid an average VND125.7 million to secure jobs abroad in 2025, down 23.8% from 2021.

Vietnam’s National Statistics Office released the findings on Sept. 8 at a Hanoi workshop organised with the International Organization for Migration. The report was prepared by the NSO from the 2025 Labour Force Survey and a separate 2025 in-depth survey of migrant workers, with technical support from IOM.

Average worker-borne costs fell from VND164.9 million in 2021 to VND125.7 million in 2025. Over the same comparison, average earnings in workers’ first month abroad rose 25.4%, from VND22.4 million to VND28.1 million.

That pushed the SDG 10.7.1 recruitment-cost indicator — total costs borne by workers to obtain overseas employment relative to first-month earnings at destination — from 7.4 in 2021 to 4.5 in 2025. In practical terms, the 2025 average cost equalled about 4.5 months of starting overseas pay.

The earlier 7.4-month figure came from Vietnam’s 2021 Labour Force Survey and was published by the International Labour Organization in December 2022. That study covered Vietnamese nationals who had worked abroad during 2018-2021.

The costs measured extend beyond agency fees. They include paperwork and other departure requirements, payments to recruitment organisations or individual brokers, travel and other expenses associated with obtaining employment abroad.

A separate in-depth survey collected information from 3,596 international migrant workers in six provinces and centrally administered cities in October and November 2025.

Among those respondents, payments to recruitment organisations or individual brokers accounted for 52.8% of migration costs, while 53.9% had borrowed to cover pre-departure expenses. The survey used non-probability sampling and is not representative of all Vietnamese migrant workers.

The NSO said the report also examines differences by sex, place of residence, skill level, destination and job-search channel, and recommends improving the continuity and comparability of labour-migration data.

Emelie Rennerfelt, deputy head of mission at the Swedish Embassy in Vietnam, said “decent working conditions and ethical recruitment practices across supply chains can reinforce these gains.”