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.

The southern metropolis offered stable jobs with decent pay, and young women in particular flocked to garment and shoe factories, where the workforce is three-quarters female.

But as living costs surge, Hiep is joining a wave of workers rejecting the commercial hub for a quieter life back home -- leaving city businesses struggling to fill their ranks.

"I have stayed in this city long enough," Hiep, 42, told AFP after her shift at a factory owned by Taiwan's Pou Chen, one of the biggest and best-paying shoe manufacturers in the country.

"I work all day long, starting at sunrise and ending when it's dark," she said. "But I still struggle to pay my rent."

Despite earning 10 million dong ($400) a month, a third more than the national average, Hiep lives in a 10-square-metre, one-room apartment with her husband and........

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