End of the big city dream


Ever-increasing prices: A worker shopping for clothes at a street market near a factory in Ho Chi Minh City. As living costs surge, a wave of workers are rejecting the commercial hub for a quieter life back home, leaving city businesses struggling to fill their ranks. — AFP

Treading a familiar path for women in rural Vietnam, Nguyen Thi Hiep found a factory job in dynamic Ho Chi Minh City and spent 16 years helping make shoes for Western brands such as Adidas and Nike.

Vietnam is among the world’s largest exporters of clothing, footwear and furniture and Ho Chi Minh City and its hundreds of thousands of migrant workers have for decades helped power its manufacturing boom.

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