Unequal race of labor demand and supply
According to the Employment Indicator prepared by VietnamWorks.com in 2007, the labor demand in 2007 increased by 67% compared to the previous year, while the labor supply only increased by 22%. This creates a big gap between the demand of skilled talents and the available human resources. More than that, the gap is widening, which forecasts the race between labor supply and demand will be much more intense in 2008.
It is noticeable that the manufacturing category keeps its uptrend demand for the whole year. In Quarter 4, 2007 amongst the six top categories in demand, the manufacturing category increased by 28% compared to the previous quarter, becoming the highest growth category of this quarter. The sales category surpassed in both demand and supply, bringing a lot of opportunities to both job seekers and employers in this category. It was the first time of the year that the supply index of the sales category reaches 13% compared to the same period last year.
Indeed, both demand and supply indexes of the real estate category keep increasing, reflecting a fast and strong growth of this industry which is considered the “hottest” in 2007. Regarding the supply index, real estate was listed among the best growth categories with an increase of 36%. Also, the demand index increased by 9%. Accounting/Finance has been facing the biggest shortage of labor supply. At the end of 2007, the demand index increased by 107% compared to the same period in 2006. The supply, at a much lower pace, increased by only 15%.
Hot categories
In 2007, sales, marketing, finance/accounting, engineering, administrative/clerical, IT-software were the top six in demand of the year. It’s forecasted that except for the marketing category, the demand of the others will increase remarkably in Quarter 1, 2008.
Ms. Winnie Lam, Director of Navigos Group’s Human Resource Advisory Services said “In the next few years, it’ll be very hard to narrow the gap between the labor demand and supply in most of categories. The economy is growing so fast that the society can’t prepare the skilled talent for the increasing demand.”
The advantage of cheap labor only exists in some industry and it won’t last forever. Hence, employer should develop the knowledge and skills for staffs to successfully compete in the talent war. Training employees is one of the most effective solutions for the talent shortage nowadays.
