Job market growth in Vietnam is expected to remain robust this year, although the statistic might not be as high as in 2017. According to recent survey titled “Job Outlook Report 2018” commissioned by SEEK Asia, this trend is attributed to the increasing number of companies planning to expand business by 50 percent, 18 percent less than that of 2017. Meanwhile, 10 percent businesses said they would maintain their hiring rate this year.

Rapid growth of startups and foreign enterprises in the country has given candidates more choices of employment, said SEEK Asia, which combines the two job portals, JobStreet and JobsDB under one roof. Not to mention, a report from the Ministry of Planning and Investment revealed that the number of new businesses and the amount of registered capital has seen an increase by three times compared to 2014.

Speaking at the press conference “Key Winning Strategies to Gear up for a Robust Job Market Outlook 2018” in HCM City, JobStreet.com’s country manager for Vietnam Angie Phang said that hiring expansion growth had created greater competition among companies to attract the best talents.

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The study noted that online job portals remain candidates’ favourite to apply for or monitor new job opportunities, with a higher score in 2018 compared to 2017. According to Nguyen Thị Thu Trang, country head of operations for JobStreet.com, candidates can select a vast range of job opportunities online. Additionally, the job market also offers various new types of skills and jobs. The recruitment industry has transformed to be a candidate-driven market, supported with the development of technology.

While employers and candidates in Vietnam do not see a brighter market this year compared to Southeast Asia, the number of jobs across the region, including in Vietnam, has increased dramatically. As a consequence, this creates more competition in hiring and retaining talented staff.

When it comes to employee benefits, transportation plan and housing rental allowance are most desired by employees in Vietnam. In other countries in the region, employees prefer flexible working hours and childcare support, Vietnam News reports.

Owing to the competitive market SEEK Asia emphasised the need to build an innovative platform for talent acquisition and retention strategies. Technology must be in place to have continuously updated candidate analytics, while cross-nation insight should be used to recruit top talents, it said.

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