Interviews at a job fair in Hà Nội. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Many manufacturing enterprises in industrial zones (IZs) have been speeding up recruitment of workers to complete year-end orders. But recruitment is not easy, even though businesses have continuously attended job fairs, posted job advertisements and offered many incentives to employees.

Hoàng Thị Chín, recruitment staff at Pentax Ricoh Imaging Company in Hà Nội’s Sài Đồng B IZ, said that her company needed to recruit about 200 workers and technicians for electronic assembly chains.

"The increase in orders at the end of the year means we need to recruit unskilled and technical workers between 18 and 35 years old. Income depends on the position, with workers earning an average of VNĐ7 to 10 million (US$265-380) per month, while technical workers are paid based on experience and skills," Chín said.

"In addition to participating in mobile job fairs, we also posted on social networks and job groups. Besides salaries, bonuses and free meals, the company also applied a separate bonus policy for new employees, skilled workers and employees with outstanding performance."

Due to competition with other companies in industrial zones, some companies have accepted reducing recruitment criteria and lowering input requirements to secure workers.

Nguyễn Vân Anh, a human resources staff member at Viet Chef Company in Lai Xá IZ, said: "As a business producing food seasoning, the year-end months are the peak of orders.”

“Currently, the company needs to fulfill positions for food industry specialists, accountants and purchasing specialists, but the most difficult are still more than 20 positions for workers and technicians.”

The company offers a salary ranging from VNĐ7 million per month for new workers with no experience, to VNĐ12 million for technical workers with intermediate or higher degrees.

"It seems easy to recruit, but in reality, it is very difficult," she said.

“At this moment, recruitment demand is increasing, so we have had to increase direct recruitment. Through participating in a number of job fairs of the Hà Nội Employment Service Centre, I found that although there were many applications for accounting and purchasing positions, unskilled workers are scarce. We accepted posting on paid job sites but still could not recruit enough."

“Therefore, we had to employ workers aged over 40 with good health and high adaptability to the job.”

Recruitment information posted on the Hà Nội Job Exchange shows that job opportunities are concentrated in the young labour group, with those aged 18-25 and 26-35 accounting for nearly 75 per cent of total recruitment demand.

This shows that the labour market still prioritises young people with high working capacity and adaptability.

According to recruitment companies, year-end months are when employees are least likely to change jobs because they are expecting year-end bonuses.

Explaining the labour shortage in the year-end months, Vũ Quang Thành, deputy director of the Hà Nội Job Service Centre, said that unskilled labourers now had many job options, both part-time and full-time.

“Although businesses offered attractive salaries and benefits, young labourers tended to look for jobs in offices with a modern and stable environment,” said Thành.

“Unskilled labour is really in demand at this time. Many companies were forced to switch to recruiting workers over 40 years old to ensure production at the end of the year when orders increase."

Enhancement of supply-demand connection

Enterprises are continuing to ramp up production and business activities to meet orders for the New Year and Lunar New Year (Tết) 2026, according to Thành. Among them, the trade and services sector is forecast to see the strongest increase in labour demand, around 4-5 per cent, particularly in retail, logistics and marketing.

The construction sector is also expected to grow by around 4 per cent as many public investment projects enter the year-end disbursement acceleration phase.

Meanwhile, manufacturing and processing industries are projected to maintain stable growth of 3-4 per cent, focusing on consumer goods production.

Nguyễn Tây Nam, deputy director of the Hà Nội Department of Home Affairs, said that the department launched the Hà Nội Job Portal, an important tool helping enterprises, workers and management agencies enhance the application of information technology and artificial intelligence in operations, especially in online labour supply-demand matching.

In the context of an increasingly vibrant year-end labour market, enterprises are working both to recruit sufficient staff and retain their current workforce.

The issue of a shortage of unskilled labour is therefore not merely a temporary problem during the peak season, but a long-term challenge for businesses in building a stable, attractive and humane working environment.

A representative of Manpower Việt Nam said that the expansion of production and the implementation of new projects made the need to recruit skilled workers more urgent than ever.

To ease difficulties, Manpower recommended that enterprises review their recruitment criteria, choose appropriate candidate-reach channels for each industry group and adjust wage and benefit policies to increase competitiveness in attracting labour. — VNS