Businesses keep recruiting insufficient people
For 4 months now, Mr. Bui Dinh Trung - Director of ACM Architectural Design Company (Ba Dinh ward, Hanoi) has been having a headache because he does not recruit enough personnel to serve the peak construction in the last months of the year.
Mr. Trung said that his company specializes in designing and constructing villas, garden houses, and high-class resorts. Therefore, in addition to a team of architects and professional design staff, the company always has a need to recruit highly skilled personnel in the field of garden construction, construction of specialized items of garden houses, neoclassical villas...
Recruiting butchers and construction workers is easy, recruiting people with deep experience and high skills to deploy specific items in this group is extremely difficult, although the salary we offer is extremely attractive compared to the general level," Mr. Trung said.
Also according to Mr. Trung, the group of highly skilled construction workers, in addition to receiving high salaries from the company, also received "hot bonuses" from many investors. "The project satisfies the aesthetics and progress, the investor does not hesitate to give bonuses," Mr. Trung said.
To compensate for the shortage of personnel and not lose customers, Mr. Trung has to rotate and oversee personnel for projects, and at the same time accept to re-hire personnel from other companies and projects at high prices.
There are difficult items, we pay daily wages up to 1.5 million VND/day but we cannot recruit enough people," Mr. Trung complained.
Also "struggling" to recruit people like Mr. Trung, Mr. Nguyen Duc Binh - Director of Thanh Ha Bridge and Road Construction and Construction Co., Ltd. (Phuong Liet ward, Hanoi) is having a headache due to a lack of highly skilled personnel.
“Chung toi dang thi cong mot cong trinh lon tai mien Bac, rat can tho van hanh may xay dung sieu truong sieu trong. Hon nua nam nay, doanh nghiep van chua tuyen duoc ½ nhu cau. Voi cac thiet bi cong nghiep hien dai, chung toi khong dam ha tieu chi, tieu chuan vi doi hoi quy trinh an toan rat nghiem ngat, do do qua trinh “doi” nhan su cang keo dai”, ong Binh cho hay.
According to Mr. Binh's assessment, the supply-demand mismatch when many workers are unemployed and businesses are "hungry" for people for a long time not only causes difficulties for workers and businesses, but also directly affects labor productivity and the sustainable development of the economy.
Training is not yet linked to needs
In contrast to the "thirsty" situation of technical human resources, the labor market recorded a surplus of unskilled labor. At job placement centers, the number of untrained workers or those with only basic qualifications accounts for a large proportion. However, stable job opportunities for this group are increasingly shrinking.
In Hanoi, according to the Hanoi Employment Service Center, in January 2026, the City has about 40,000 job positions to be recruited. In which, the demand for recruiting skilled workers accounts for more than 50% of the total demand. However, in the opposite direction, the applicants account for a large proportion of unskilled workers and unskilled personnel.
Ba Nguyen Thi Lan Huong – nguyen Vien truong Vien Khoa hoc lao dong xa ho cho rang, mot trong nhung nguyen nhan cot loi cua nghich ly nay la he thong dao tao nghe chua gan chat voi nhu cau thuc te cua doanh nghiep. Tinh trang thieu lao dong co tay nghe khien nhieu doanh nghiep khong the mo rong san xuat hoac phai hoat dong duoi cong suat. Viec tuyen dung keo dai lam tang chi phi, cham tien do don hang, anh huong den kha nang canh tranh.
In the opposite direction, excess general labor leads to high unemployment and joblessness, precarious income, and difficult living conditions. This is also one of the reasons why the labor market is unstable, increasing informal labor and social security pressure.
In the long term, the labor supply-demand mismatch also slows down the growth of national labor productivity, hindering the transition to a technology-based economy with high added value," Ms. Huong said.
To solve this paradox, Ms. Huong offers basic solutions, in which businesses need to participate more deeply in the training process, from program development to receiving interns and recruiting after graduation. The "double training" model - combining studying at school and working at a business will be an effective direction.
In parallel with training reform, it is necessary to change society's perception of the value of vocational training. High-skilled technical workers today not only have good incomes, but also have clear career advancement opportunities. Job orientation for students right from the general education level is a key factor to rebalance labor supply and demand.
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