Rising recruitment brings some relief

Many workers have decided to leave the big cities for their hometowns in the last few months. Photo: Le Toan

According to the Hanoi Centre for Employment Services (SCES), employees in IT and banking are being afforded more job opportunities due to slightly increased recruitment trends.

The salary that employers are willing to pay for workers in these fields ranges from VND 9-11 million ($390-$470) per month, accounting for 50 per cent of those participating in, according to the SCES’ survey on recuitment in August. The remaining 40 per cent are willing to pay a salary of VND 13-15 million ($560-$650) monthly, concentrated at big tech groups such as Samsung, LG, and Foxcomn.

In its latest announcement in September, Samsung Vietnam recruited 1,000 employees to work in Bac Ninh province. Previously in the year, the company also recruited 3,000 employees to work at its manufacturing complex in the neighbouring province of Thai Nguyen.

LG Display Vietnam has also announced the recruitment of 5,000 more workers with an average income of VND8.5-11.6 million ($360-$500) per month after deciding to increase the total investment capital in the complex in the northern port city of Haiphong to $4.65 billion.

“Due to the impact of the pandemic, the complex is only recruiting personnel in Haiphong as candidates from outside the province are temporarily unable to apply for this batch,” announced LG Display. It is expected that the manufacturer still needs to recruit more than 20,000 people in 2022. In February 2022 alone, it will need about 2,000 more workers to meet production targets.

The banking sector also has a great recruitment demand for positions in customer relations, IT for system development, and digital transformation. VPBank and Sacombank are among the lenders that are recruiting many mid- and senior-level staff.

The results of employment information collection by the SCES also shows that the recruitment demand in manufacturing, processing and assembly, accommodation, and catering services from now until the end of the year will increase in proportion to the recovery situation of the economy.

“Retailers of consumer goods such as supermarkets, convenience stores, traditional markets, and retailers of electronics, refrigeration, and telecommunications are expected to recruit more. The salary in this sector is mainly VND5-10 million ($215-430) per month and focuses on the positions of cashier, sales, and transport,” said Vu Quang Thanh, deputy director of the SCES.

He added, “Many employees can go back to work and participate in the production chain instead of stopping or having to work from home or work remotely.”

The increase in the recruitment demand to restore production will be a general trend – however, Nguyen Thi Lan Huong, former director of the Institute of Labour Science and Social Affairs, said that the labour market will witness groups with a faster recovery rate than others.

“Enterprises in industrial zones (IZs) are mainly exporters, and now industries that are heavily involved in exporting will be easier to recover and develop. Next are groups of occupations that use technical workers,” Huong said.

The Employment Department under the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs noted that the rate of migrant workers returning to their hometowns during social distancing in the south, and then returning to work, is only about 60-70 per cent, creating a great paradox in the labour supply and demand.

Large cities where many industrial and export processing zones are concentrated will be at risk of labour shortages to recover if the pandemic is controlled, while places with a large labour supply such as agricultural production will have a surplus in resources.

According to Haiphong Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, there are a little over 1,000 enterprises in the city that have recruitment needs, of which the vast majority are outside IZs. The total recruitment demand is more than 40,000 employees, including nearly 32,500 unskilled workers, while the rest are workers with vocational to university degrees or higher. The industry group with the highest recruitment demand is the construction with more than 29,000 people, while trade and services have a recruitment demand of more than 8,500 people.

Nevertheless, the current restrictions nationwide mean that most businesses face many difficulties in recruiting. A representative of S&D Co., Ltd. in Haiphong said that the company needs to recruit 100 more workers, but so far only five people have taken up work there.

In the southern province of Binh Duong, which was once a COVID-19 hot spot, more than 1,000 businesses that have resumed operations have faced the challenge of labour shortages after the province gradually eased the social distancing from September 15. The province currently has 50,000 businesses with more than 1.2 million employees. The pandemic caused tens of thousands of businesses to temporarily close and only more than 3,000 production plants remained under two stay-at-work options.

Faced with the risk of labour surplus and shortages, the Employment Department has asked cities and provinces to apply IT to conduct online labour and employment transactions to connect the labour market. The implementation of policies on retraining workers in the coming time, especially in localities where many workers return, will also help them access better job opportunities.