Too young to retire, too old to be hired
In its Words on the Street column today, The Hanoi Times tells the stories of workers caught in a quiet but growing dilemma: too young to retire, yet increasingly too old to be hired. As economic uncertainty deepens and unspoken age barriers persist, turning 40 is no longer a symbol of stability but the point at which job security begins to slip.
THE HANOI TIMES — These days, hitting 40 is supposed to mean you’ve found your footing at work. You’ve built experience, stability and a solid career path. For many people, however, that’s no longer how it feels.
Instead, 40 has quietly become the age when job security starts to slip. With the economy still shaky and companies tightening their belts, seasoned workers are increasingly pushed out, years before they ever thought retirement would matter.
An AI-generated photo shows people over 40 years old looking for a suitable job.
The story of Nguyen Thi Lan, a 47-year-old woman in Hanoi, captures this shift clearly. After 20 years at an international organization, she lost her job when it abruptly closed. There was no headline-making layoff, just a quiet ending that felt heavier than expected.
Lan once planned to work until retirement. Instead, she now joins hundreds of others completing unemployment paperwork and scanning job listings that grow less receptive with age.
What stands out is not despair, but fear mixed with resolve. Lan speaks of shock, anxiety and sleepless nights, yet she shows determination. She and her former colleagues support one another, revise resumes, learn new skills and encourage each other to keep moving forward.
Even so, Lan recognizes a harsh truth: without constant self-renewal, long years of loyalty can quickly turn into vulnerability.
Her experience reflects a broader pattern. Workers over 40 increasingly face the risk of being pushed aside, often not because they lack skills, but because the market quietly labels them “too old”.
Job postings rarely state this openly, yet phrases such as “under 35,” “young and dynamic” and “high-intensity environment” act as silent filters.
The case of Bui Huu Thang, 39, shows how narrow the margin can be. After several rounds of layoffs, he became the next to go. With two young children and a family dependent on his wife’s modest income, unemployment quickly became a daily crisis.
His monthly unemployment benefit of just over VND4 million (US$152) barely covers basic expenses. Convinced he could not compete with younger candidates, he joined a group of freelance repair workers. Some days bring a few hundred thousand dong. Others bring nothing.
What troubles Thang most is the psychological strain. He describes feeling lost, anxious and unable to sleep. His hope remains modest: a stable technical job and a chance to regain steady footing.
He believes that businesses must receive support asap so they can survive, because when companies collapse, workers fall with them.
Ironically, while many employers shut doors to older applicants, others actively seek them out. Security service firms, for example, continue to recruit workers aged 40 to 55, valuing discipline, experience and reliability.
Recruiters say that when properly trained, middle-aged workers often prove more loyal and stable, with lower turnover.
Data suggest this challenge goes far beyond individual stories. Statistics from the Hanoi Center for Employment Service show a sharp rise in unemployment benefit recipients in mid-2025, with workers aged 35 to 54 accounting for nearly 41% of applicants.
Figures from the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Employment Service point to the same trend. In 2025, workers aged 36 and above made up about half of all job seekers, while those over 45 faced the greatest difficulty as digital skills and adaptability became baseline requirements.
Here lies a striking contradiction. National policy encourages people to work longer as the population ages, yet the labor market often sidelines workers once they are around 40 years old.
This mismatch creates a dangerous gap. Many workers find themselves too young to retire, too old to be hired easily and at risk of failing to complete required years of social insurance contributions. “Not old enough to retire, but already out of work” has become a lived reality.
This is more than a labor issue but a sustainability problem. A society that discards experience wastes human capital. Workers over 40 can bring practical knowledge, discipline, emotional stability and commitment.
Several business leaders acknowledge that when companies retrain older workers and place them in suitable roles such as supervision, mentoring, quality control or technical support, these workers can add long-term value and reduce workforce volatility.
Solutions must come from multiple directions. Employers need to rethink age-based hiring habits and adopt more flexible workforce models. As Thang put it, incentives should encourage companies to hire and retrain middle-aged workers, support digital upskilling and expand part-time or flexible jobs.
According to Vu Quang Thanh, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Center for Employment Service, job centers should also design programs specifically for this age group instead of treating them like first-time job seekers.
Most importantly, workers themselves must accept a difficult reality: lifelong learning is no longer optional. Staying in one role too long without updating skills carries real risk, he warned.
The stories of Lan and Thang show that resilience begins with awareness and adaptability, even when circumstances feel unfair. Vietnam is aging, whether the labor market is ready or not.
If the gap between policy and practice remains, the country risks creating a generation of experienced workers left outside the economy, watching opportunities pass by because the system no longer recognizes their worth.
