Orders improve, increase recruitment

Signs of improvement

Assessing the labor market in recent months, according to the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA), besides some industries that were negatively affected, there were still many industries with increased industrial production index; total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue also increased. Thanks to the growth rate in some industries, it has helped to solve employment for workers and stabilize their lives in recent times. In addition, the number of newly established and returning businesses is also higher than the number of businesses withdrawing from the market, thereby contributing to creating more jobs for workers.

According to the General Statistics Office, in the first 9 months of 2023, the country had 116,300 newly registered enterprises with a total registered workforce of 748,900 people. In the fourth quarter of 2023, 37.3% of enterprises expected to have increased orders; 39.4% of enterprises expected to have stable orders and 23.3% of enterprises expected to have decreased orders. Regarding export orders, 30.9% of enterprises expected to increase new export orders; 44.7% of enterprises expected to have stable orders and 24.4% of enterprises expected to have decreased orders. Enterprises finding orders led to positive signs in recruitment demand in the last quarter of 2023.

Recent online job fairs connecting northern localities also show that some localities such as Bac Giang, Thai Nguyen, Bac Ninh, Ninh Binh have a large number of labor recruitment. In particular, Bac Giang is always one of the provinces with the largest recruitment quota, usually several thousand quotas per session, sometimes even 16,000 - 17,000 quotas. The positions that need a lot of recruitment are groups of production, electronics, garment workers...

In Hanoi, in the last months of the year, Mr. Vu Quang Thanh, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Employment Service Center, said that recruitment demand is still high in some fields. According to the unit's observations, as well as through information collection activities and direct feedback from businesses, from now until the end of the year, trade and services will continue to have a tendency to recruit a lot of workers; followed by the processing and manufacturing industry group. Other fields of activity such as construction, finance - banking, and office will also increase recruitment. Particularly, the information technology sector, which has had a large recruitment demand in the past, will continue this trend...

Many signals show that the labor market continues to maintain its recovery momentum, but according to the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, the labor market has not improved much in quality as the number of workers in precarious and unstable jobs still accounts for a large proportion. In addition, there is still a situation where domestic enterprises have had their orders cut, causing difficulties for production, especially in industries such as processing, manufacturing, textiles, footwear, etc., leading to the risk of workers continuing to lose their jobs and reduce working hours and income.

Mr. Ta Van Duong, Head of the Department of Legal Policy and Labor Relations, Hanoi Labor Federation, said that in the past 9 months, Hanoi Labor Union counted about 7,560 workers whose contracts were terminated, working hours were reduced, and income was reduced. Notably, the labor market has shifted very quickly. "There is a huge wave of labor migration from the formal to the informal sector. Workers working in factories tend to move out to work, even moving labor within enterprises," said Mr. Duong.

However, the representative of Hanoi Trade Union stated that, in general, labor relations in the area are still relatively stable even though Hanoi has many businesses and many workers. Since the beginning of the year, the city has not recorded any strikes, while previously there were times when there were 40 strikes a year...

Workers seek to adapt

According to the Report on the Status of Human Resources in the Manufacturing Industry recently published by Navigos, at least 50% of manufacturing enterprises are facing a decline in revenue. Most enterprises predict that it will take at least 12 months for the market to recover.

To overcome the difficulties, an average of 38 - 38.5% of businesses participating in the survey said they would choose to change policies to reduce working hours and cut staff. Of which, with the solution of cutting staff, at least 59% of the number of businesses participating in the survey said they would cut less than 10% of the workforce, even in some areas, businesses planned to cut staff by over 40%.

Sharing at the program “Career Development in Economic Recession” recently held by the FSB Institute of Management and Technology, Ms. Ngo Thi Ngoc Lan, Director of the Northern region of Navigos Search, said that in the past, a candidate with an assessment of 5-6 points/10 points could be recruited by businesses. However, currently, these candidates have almost no chance, in the context of businesses tightening recruitment and higher requirements. Therefore, they only accept candidates with a score of 8-9 points, with skill sets that meet the requirements for future jobs.

According to Navigos, to maintain a competitive advantage, many workers choose to develop a plan to improve their own capacity. Of these, 39% of workers choose to improve their management skills, 29% choose to improve their financial management skills, and 24% choose to improve their skills in applying technology to production.

In addition, according to Mr. Hoang Nam Tien, Vice Chairman of the FPT University Council, FPT currently has about 27 colleges. Because, in the context of robots gradually replacing humans, many workers are unemployed at a very young age. Therefore, these people need to be retrained and know more about their profession.

Mr. Hoang Nam Tien also said that not only workers, but also journalists and programmers are gradually being replaced by AI. Therefore, they will need to go back to school, as the labor market now requires a higher level of education and specialized knowledge.

Therefore, workers often mention two concepts: “up-skill” and “re-skill”. With up-skill – upgrading knowledge, choosing the right service for your expertise. Everyone should study and choose good units.

As for “re-skill” - those who are unemployed due to the impact of the industrial revolution, robots, AI... and need to learn new knowledge, it is necessary to determine what current and future society needs, as well as see if their own abilities can follow those careers. From there, determine the appropriate subject/course to upgrade themselves.