Resolving labor shortage problem

Textiles are one of industries currently facing a labor shortage

The Agrex Saigon Foodstuffs JSC has posted a recruitment drive for about 200 employees in the first quarter of the year to face a post-Lunar New Year (Tet) labor shortage. However, so far it has only received a few dozen job applications, and is skeptical about a successful implementation of its 600-employee annual recruitment plan.
This labor shortage may have significant negative impacts upon the company’s delivery progress. New recruits must be retrained for 6 to 24 months to meet with requirements. According to a representative from the Agrex Saigon Foodstuffs JSC, finding well-trained staff has become a particularly vexing question.
The post-Tet labor shortage is a common occurrence that tends to make businesses nervous. Many businesses are ready to spend up to VND1 million on training and equipment per worker per month, but have been unable to recruit enough employees, and as such, have failed to fulfill their orders.
This labor shortage has triggered a race among businesses to attract skilled workers. According to the Ho Chi Minh City Center of Forecasting Manpower Needs and Labor Market Information (FALMI), local companies needed about 23,000 workers in March alone, about 35 percent of which was for manual laborers, 40 percent skilled workers, and 25 percent college graduates and post-graduates.
Ho Chi Minh City is facing a shortage of skilled workers at all levels as the current skilled number has just met 50-60 percent of its needs. Over the past few years, skilled workers have been recruited the most – accounting for more than 50 percent of the city’s needs – by businesses operating in the fields of information technology, power, engineering, and processing. It is predicted that the need for skilled workers and technicians will still increase in the coming time, according to FALMI Deputy Director Tran Anh Tuan.
According to experts, recruitment plans were also a cause for this labor shortage. Many workers, quite understandably, left one business for another where they could get better treatment and working conditions. This was particularly true for workers on short-term seasonal contracts and who received no fringe benefits in addition to their wages.

Thanh Nguyen, the founder and CEO of Anphabe, believes that the labor shortage would probably end this year as there will be free movement of human resources in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), i.e. domestic businesses can soon recruit foreign workers, especially the highly skilled, instead of domestic workers.

By Mai Ca