VietNamNet Bridge – There are positive signs for HCM City's labour market with many enterprises recruiting a large number of workers, mostly unskilled.

Workers at a highway construction site in HCM City. Construction is among the sectors with high human resource demands in the city. Unskilled and semi-skilled workers account for 48 per cent of total demand.

The encouraging figures of HCM City's socio-economic development in the first five months of the year has helped raise HCM City's demand for workers in the second quarter by 33 per cent compared with the first quarter.

The information was made known by Tran Tuan Anh, deputy director of the HCM City Centre for Manpower Demand Forecasting and Labour Market Information.

Sectors that currently have high human resource demand are trading and sales (26.96 per cent); services (10.72 per cent); marketing and public relations (6.48 per cent).

Demand is also high in the textile and garments, leather, footwear, information technology, construction, transportation, accounting and auditing, finance and banking sectors, said Anh.

Unskilled and semi-skilled workers account for 48 per cent of manpower demand in the city, skilled workers for 20 per cent, and the remaining for people with college and university degrees.

In the second quarter, demand for skilled workers tends to be much higher than the first quarter, he said.

In May, HCM City needed 20,000 labourers, 48 per cent of them unskilled.

Tuan explained that labour-intensive enterprises in the city needed more unskilled workers because a large number of migrant workers have decided to work at export processing zones and industrial parks nearer their homes.

Low pay is another major reason behind many workers quitting their jobs at plants in industrial parks. At present, unskilled workers seek monthly salaries of VND3.5 million (US$165) to VND4.5 million ($214) per month.

"It's difficult for enterprises at EPZs and IPs to recruit staff because they tend to pay an unskilled worker less than VND3 million per month," Anh said.

To facilitate recruitment of unskilled staff for firms in EPZs and IPs, employment agencies must enhance their capacity and diversify services, Anh said.

Source: VNS