Labour Market Active after Tet

 

JobStreet.com said it surveyed over 350 employers on its JobStreet.com and 75 per cent of them said that employment is the most volatile in the first and second quarters. 68 per cent of respondents said the post-Tet employment demand is very high. This occurrence is also seen in two ASEAN neighbours, Malaysia and Singapore since labourers in these nations also have the Lunar New Year holiday like in Vietnam. According to data from JobStreet.com in Malaysia and Singapore, 73 per cent and 80 per cent of employers said the employment in many companies is the most fluctuation in the first half of the year, respectively.

 

According to JobStreet.com experts, the job market is biased to sectors. Specifically, January data showed that the demand for sales, marketing and ICT positions was very high, accounting for over 40 per cent of total recruitment announcements on JobStreet.com Vietnam. About 29.5 per cent of job vacancies posted on Jobstreet.com website were related to sales and marketing positions.

 

Mr Tran Anh Tuan, Deputy Director of the Centre for Forecasting Manpower Needs and Labour Market Information (FALMI), said Ho Chi Minh City-based businesses substantially need to employ 19,000 workers after the Tet 2016, of which 30 per cent were part-time and seasonal jobs. He added that the worker force in HCM City was estimated to drop 3-4 per cent after the Tet. And, 6-8 per cent of workers changed their jobs during the first quarter of 2016.

 

The labour demand in HCM City is projected at 270,000 workers in 2016, of which 130,000 jobs are new, Mr Tuan said. Specifically, the demand in the first, second, third and fourth quarters is 65,000 people, 70,000 people, 70,000 people and 65,000 people, respectively.

 

For the time being, a lot of labour and employment experts in Vietnam share a common concern about opportunities and challenges for candidates and recruiters in Vietnam when the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) comes into force at the end of 2016.

 

According to JobStreet.com Vietnam, the biggest obstacle to Vietnamese workers at the time of joining the AEC labour market is foreign language skill. Sadly, Vietnam was ranked fourth out of five countries in the region in foreign language skills.

 

A survey on fresh graduates showed that only 5 per cent are confident about their English skills, while 27 per cent acknowledge having a weakness in language skills overall. Despite the advantage of understanding the local market, low labour productivity and a lack of language skills is a problem for Vietnamese workers competing with those from elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

 

Ms Angie SW Phang, General Director of JobStreet.com Vietnam, said that the entry to AEC will open up many opportunities for applicants as they are welcomed by multinational corporations, especially those with high professional level and skills.

 

However, she pointed out that, many companies in Vietnam are yet to deal with the transparency of compensation information. According to experts, current wages, remunerations and compensations in are still much lower than other countries in the region due to lower professional levels and labour productivity. Up to 60 per cent of people surveyed by JobStreet.com said their salaries cannot afford their basic daily demand although annual salary rise is at a double-digit speed (while the growth in many countries is a single-digit speed).

 

Angie said wage transparency mechanism will change the recruitment market in Vietnam. In addition, the transparency of attractive compensation will make advantages for companies to draw talent because many want to be paid for performance. This is also a method to enhance labour productivity of Vietnam when it faces abundant manpower supplies from other AEC countries. Particularly, Vietnam will advance strong integration into ASEAN in particular and the world in general when a number of free trade agreements (FTAs) like AEC and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) take effect.