Foreign companies seek more workers

At Binh Duong Industrial Park in Di An Town in the southern province of Binh Duong, for example, many enterprises said they would be recruiting a huge number of workers.

The Republic of Korea’s Hison Vina, which produces leather shoes, said it would hire 200 female manual workers and 50 skilled female workers offering salaries between VND4-7 million (US$200-350).

Another company, Sung Hyun Vina, currently has 5,000 workers but still needs more garment workers to meet its first order for 2014.

At HCM City's Linh Trung 1 Processing Zone, the situation is the same, with Freetrend Industrial Vietnam, which produces Nike shoes and sport clothes, needing manual workers at salaries of VND5-6 million ($250).

Japanese-owned Nissei Electric Vietnam said it needed 100 seasonal workers.

The company rarely recruits employees because many of its workers stay and live in company-sponsored dormitories.

A representative of the Dong Nai province's Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Department said that FDI enterprises in the province would need 30,000 workers to replace those who had stopped working.

"The shortage of manual workers this year will be around 5%, not as serious as previous years, " said Tran Anh Tuan, vice director of the HCM City's Labour Market Information and Human Resource Demand Forecast Centre told Vietnam Investment Review.

"This need is mostly in trade and service small and medium sized companies," he added.

A representative of the HCM City Export Processing Zone and Industrial Park Authority (HEPZA) said that companies under HEPZA's management would need about 30,000 new workers.

"Most enterprises need new workers to expand production, especially textile companies," a HEPZA representative said.

In Long An Province, many Chinese and Taiwanese companies are building workshop spaces in preparation for Vietnam's signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Demand for human resources will sharply increase after this trade agreement is ratified.