A garment factory in Việt Nam. VNA/VNS Photo VNA

HÀ NỘI — About 150,000 new jobs will be created in the second quarter of this year, including 28,200 in electronics and optical device manufacturing, 18,600 in food processing, and 4,700 in beverage production, the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) predicted.

MoLISA forecasts the most sought jobs will be related to manual work in the industrial sector, sales and marketing, accounting and finance, production management, personnel management, and project management.

The most in-demand jobs will be in the areas of software development, network administration, network security, data analysis and communications, accounting and finance, marketing, sales and product management, health care, mechanics, electronics, and automation.

However, the ministry also pointed out that the labour market is facing numerous challenges in Q2, leading to the loss of 38,100 jobs in the garment industry, 38,000 in furniture production, and 37,800 in record printing and copying.

Data from the General Statistics Office show that nearly 294,000 workers suffered from lay-offs or furloughs due to businesses’ shortages of orders in Q1.

Nearly 118,000 workers in enterprises lost their jobs in Q4 of 2022, while this number approximated 149,000 in Q1 this year.

Experts held that it is necessary to take action in response to the order decline facing many companies in such major industrial hubs as Đồng Nai, Bình Dương, Bắc Ninh, and Bắc Giang.

Hồ Thị Kim Ngân, deputy head of the labour relations division of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour, blamed the recent lay-offs on order shortages, noting that when cutting personnel, businesses will remove less skilled workers first and retain high-level ones who can work in many positions.

The official recommended that to respond to changes in the labour markets, and workers should improve their skills to meet jobs’ requirements. She also pointed out the need for enterprises to provide short- and long-term employee training.

Meanwhile, state agencies and training centres should also increase coordination with businesses to improve workers’ skills while grasping demand in the labour market to connect businesses with job seekers better, Ngân added. VNS