Job seeking no longer hard labour

According to the recently released report, 30 out of a total of 39 job categories showed an increase in demand during the second quarter. As a result it is expected that recruitment into white-collar professions such as sales, technology, telecommunications, marketing, engineering, accounting and administrative/clerical will increase.
When measured in percentage terms, the study showed that accounting had the biggest increase of 87 per cent over the first quarter. One category showing decline was the insurance sector with a 63 per cent decrease, according to Vietnamworks.com’s figures.
Ho Chi Minh City had the largest quantity of new jobs, accounting for 57 per cent of all jobs advertised nationwide. Hanoi followed with 24 per cent of the new jobs being advertised and where labour demand strongly increased in the second quarter, more than doubling from the first quarter.
Tiffany Nguyen, Vietnamworks.com’s strategic initiatives director and also the author of the Vietnam Employment Indicator, said: “The rapid growth of labour demand this quarter is an excellent indicator of recruiting activity in Vietnam and is further evidence of the nation’s strong economic growth.”

While demand for professional workers is increasing rapidly, supply is not keeping up, according to the report. Labour supply slightly increased in the second quarter, with technology and telecommunications accounting for the largest category of active job seekers.

In the second quarter, 31 out of 39 categories rose slightly but two major categories, administrative/clerical and accounting, showed a huge decline, falling 80 per cent and 35 per cent respectively.

According to Jonah Levey, managing director of VietnamWorks.com and Navigos Group the employment indicator shows the gap between demand and supply in the nation’s job market is increasing.

“Demand for qualified talent continues to rise rapidly and exceed supply. For this reason, salaries are on the rise and we expect this trend to continue,” he said.

“In professional sectors like telecommunications and IT, salaries are rising more than 11 per cent annually and a supply shortage prevails, hence the salaries that companies are willing to pay for skilled professionals continues to increase.

“Job categories with the largest gap between supply and demand such as administrative/clerical and import/export will of course eventually attract more professionals in pursuit of high pay, and the rate of wage increase will slow. However such a correction will take years to occur.”

VietnamWorks.com is Vietnam’s largest online recruiter, having served more than 2,000 companies and over 300,000 jobseekers since its inception in 2002.

VietNamWorks.com and Navigos Group have recently conducted a salary survey of 208 enterprises among 35,000 employees working in all major business and industry centres of the country.