Employment Market Is Increasing despite Economic Difficulty

While this stability in total jobs may sound a little unexciting, we regard it as a great base for the rest of the year. 62 percent of our clients are likely to increase hiring in 2013 over 2012.

 

2012 kicked off in a period of high inflation and general growth, and high wage inflation had more people moving jobs and so on, so our quarter 1 numbers reflected that. 2013 commenced with the hangover from late-2012 and general economic malaise, so to return an almost identical quarter YOY is quite a solid foundation for a strong 2013. Further – and most encouragingly – we saw our best week in history at the end of February 2013, followed by a strong month in March with YOY 9 percent growth in terms of job postings.

 

Other important findings from the company's research revealed Hanoi as currently the best city in the nation to find a job, ahead of Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, according to a ratio that measures the number of listings to the working age population of the three major cities.

 

The best industries for young job seekers remain IT – notably in software development in Da Nang where job growth in this industry has tripled; electronics (up 28 percent); consulting (up 32 percent); textile and footwear (up 38 percent); pharmaceuticals and bio-tech (up 66 percent); and retail and wholesale (up 105 percent) all proved themselves quite recession-proof and all reporting growth YOY.

 

Various administrative/clerical industries, marketing, and architecture/interior design did not fare as well, reporting declines of 38 percent, 31 percent, 23 percent, respectively.

 

Competitiveness remains hottest for roles in administration and accounting and import/export roles, where we typically see the highest numbers of applications per job and the most job seekers specifying those industries as desired employers. Conversely the NGO sector, the legal profession, medical and healthcare industries and agriculture are all reporting skills shortages, meaning that employers have to work very hard to offer compelling packages and work environments to attract the best talent in those fields.

 

When our team looked at our data, we saw very strong correlations between our numbers and those of government, economic and financial institutions. In many ways this is logical – when companies are investing and launching new projects, they need a team to make that happen – and in our 11 year history, we have built a reputation as the preferred partner for recruitment of over 10,000 employers in Vietnam. As such, we decided to go public with some of our opinions on Vietnam's recruitment industry and the way we see it presently headed.