Vietnam’s labor supply gradually recovers after Tet

The domestic labor supply market has been recovering after Tet holiday, according to the latest forecast of the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs.

A strong demand for recruitment among businesses after the Lunar New Year. HNT Photo: Pham Hung

The labor market at the end of the year showed signs of recovery when local businesses resumed operations in the last quarter of 2021, focusing on boosting production activities. The number of workers and the average monthly income increased while the unemployment rate decreased compared to the previous quarter.

Though large corporations and foreign enterprises reported that there will be a labor shortage of 10-15% after the holiday, the MoLISA said the figure is not a big concern. 

Recent forecasts about industries showed a strong demand for recruitment after the Lunar New Year, especially in the first quarter of 2022.

In Hanoi, Vu Quang Thanh, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Employment Service Center, said that recruitment in the manufacturing, processing and service industries will remain strong.

As the pandemic has led to the increasingly popular application of artificial intelligence (Al) and delivery service industry, a number of sectors will have a large recruitment demand such as e-commerce, logistics, transportation, warehousing, and data analysis in 2022.

The recruitment demand of international trade groups will be vibrant under the impacts of a number of free trade agreements that Vietnam is a signatory. Hiring demand from traditional groups, which saw a strong increase in the past year, is expected to continue such as sales, trade, information technology, finance, banking and insurance.

In the first quarter of 2022, Hanoi is expected to organize 61 job matching sessions, find jobs for 12,000 workers and sending 500 others to work abroad.

Ho Chi Minh City, home to the most abundant human resources in the country, is also expected to see rising hiring demand in a number of occupational groups after Tet.

Job groups are expected to have high recruitment demand after Tet include commercial business, personal service, security, consulting services-scientific research and development, information technology, textiles-leather-footwear, tourism-catering-accommodation services, among others.

To adapt to the new normal period, businesses need to develop appropriate plans and policies for recruiting personnel such as remuneration regimes for employees as well as have a plan to ensure pandemic prevention in the production and doing business process, local insiders said.

Minister of the Labor, War Invalids and Social Affair Dao Ngoc Dung said that in order to have a stable labor market, the first thing is to fundamentally reform vocational education, with a focus on forming a supply-demand system for hiring and training as well as increasing the proportion of trained workers.

From 2022 onwards, the MoLISA will focus on building the foundation for high-quality vocational training, emphasized Dung.