VietNamNet Bridge – Marketing and sales officers would be most wanted in 2013, a report says, because businesses would have to focus on boosting sales and clear inventories.

It is expected that the enterprises in HCM City would employ nearly 50,000 marketing workers in 2013, the highest number of workers among the 36 main careers surveyed.

According to the HCM City Human Resource Forecasting and Job Center, HCM City would have 270,000 vacant jobs in 2013. Marketing officers would be most wanted, with the number of jobs to be created accounting for 18.05 percent of the total demand, followed by service and seller – 16.5 percent.

Meanwhile, the labor force demand in the other 34 sectors is less than 10 percent. The demand is especially low, in chemistry, automobile technology, motorbike, legal and scientific research, just less than one percent.

In fact, the demand for marketing officers is always higher than that in other careers, especially in HCM City. However, this is really a challenging job. A lot of unprofitable businesses in HCM City have to cut down the labor force. Meanwhile, the labor supply has got profuse because of the high number of graduates from economics schools. Therefore, only the best candidates would be chosen, since companies all have said they would set stricter requirements.

“What businesses need from marketing officers is the capability to increase the sales of the companies’ products, establish distribution network and expand the market,” said Nguyen Van Sang, Director of the Center for Career Guidance and Vocational Center.

Analysts also noted that clearing inventories proves to be the most important task for businesses now; therefore, it is understandable why businesses now pamper marketing workers more than in previous years.

Tan, the owner of a food distribution company in Binh Thanh district, said he is looking for marketing officers to expand the company’s distribution network for the pre-Tet sale season.

“I don’t care how many companies the marketing officers work for. I will recruit them if they can help me boost sales,” he said.

However, job experts have pointed out that marketing officers are both deficient and redundant. Businesses continuously employ more workers, while more and more workers have been laid off, and the demand does not match the supply.

A report by a job website showed that 3,116 enterprises registering to recruit marketing workers in 2012, a decrease of 4.1 percent in comparison with 2011. Meanwhile, the businesses that needed more workers increased by 26 percent.

The problem is that businesses only hunt for qualified workers, while incapable laborers would still be redundant.

Regarding the wages, a report by a foreign human resource firm in HCM City showed that Sales and Marketing Directors with 8-year experience earned US$50,000-65,000 in 2012 and $44,000-52,000 in 2011. Meanwhile, 4-5-year experienced sales directors were paid $26,000-32,000 in 2012, an increase of 10 percent over the same period of the year before.

Analysts believe that the income levels for sales directors and senior marketing officers would even be higher in 2013.

Meanwhile, medium class marketing officers would still receive VND2.5-3 million a month in fixed salary. However, Sang said, the “additional income” would be higher, because the company plans to offer higher commissions for the marketing officers.

According to Do Thanh Nam, President and CEO of Win-Win, a consultancy firm, said that marketing officers mostly graduate from business administration schools.

VNE