The city's labour market will need about 135,000 new and replacement positions to be filled in the second half of the year, according to the Centre for Human Resources Forecasting and Labour Market Information. 

Young people look for employment information at a job fair held in HCM City's Youth Culture House. Sales and marketing, accounting and auditing are among fields in high recruitment demand in the last six months. (Photo: VNS)

During this period, industrial parks and export processing zones will require 30,000 workers, the centre says.

Manual workers and semi-skilled workers will account for 40 per cent and 35 per cent of the recruitment demand, respectively. The remaining 25 per cent of the labour demand is for university graduates.

Most of the jobs will be in sales and marketing, accounting and auditing, construction and architecture, electronics, telecommunication, mechanics, human resource management and administration, textile and garment, footwear and the services industry.

"Although labour supply exceeds demand in general, the city till faces a shortage of skilled workers," said Tran Anh Tuan, deputy director of the centre.

Despite a fall in labour demand and an increase in registration for unemployment insurance benefits, many enterprises are failing to find enough qualified skilled workers.

"New graduates will join the labour market in the coming months, resulting in a surge in supply," Tuan said.

The number of laid-off workers is expected to rise in the coming months due to the increasing numbers of enterprises closing or downsizing to deal with financial problems.

The first six months of the year saw a decline in recruitment demand compared with the same period last year, mostly in labour-intensive sectors like textile and garments, footwear, mechanics and electronics.

Meanwhile, the labour turnover rate in the city fell to 15 per cent of the total work force in the second quarter, compared to 25 per cent in the first. 

Source: VNS