Ho Chi Minh City (AFP) – Phan Thi Nhieu has spent a decade assembling shoes for worldwide brands such as Timberland and K-Swiss, but she is now among tens of thousands of Vietnamese factory workers laid off as Western consumers cut spending. Almost half a million other workers in Vietnam have been forced to work fewer hours as orders fall in the Southeast Asian country, one of the world’s largest exporters of clothing, footwear and furniture.
