Using the WSM method to assess the factors affecting youth unemployment in Vietnam

This study investigates the determinants of youth unemployment in Vietnam by combining expert interviews with the Weighted Summation Method (WSM) to synthesize multi-stakeholder judgments. Ten interviewees were consulted, including unemployed youth, employers seeking to recruit, and researchers in labor economics and social security; four respondents with consistent assessments were retained as the final decision-making panel. The panel evaluated five main factor groups: Worker Characteristics, Economic Development, Migration, Population, and Technological Replacement, and their associated sub-criteria. Applying the WSM procedure, linguistic ratings were transformed into criterion weights and standardized scores, and composite values were calculated to rank the relative influence of each factor group. The results show that Worker Characteristics is the most influential factor group, followed by Technological Replacement and Economic Development. At the same time, Population and Migration receive lower priority in the overall weighting scheme. At the sub-criterion level, Workers’ skills achieves the highest standardized mean score, indicating the strongest perceived impact on youth unemployment; Workers’ experience ranks second. Education level, Economic structure, and AI form the next tier, followed by Economic growth and Automation. Composite results further confirm the dominance of Worker Characteristics with Technological Replacement and Economic Development next, whereas Migration and Population are lowest. Overall, the findings highlight that addressing skills and experience gaps, while helping young workers adapt to technology-driven job substitution, should be central to policies aimed at reducing youth unemployment in Vietnam. Keywords: Human Resource Management, Unemployment, Employment, Youth, WSM Method.