Vietnam to lack 400,000 IT workers by 2020
Challenging but positive prospects for HR market in 2019

A job fair in HCM City. — VNS Photo Ngoc Diep

“The shortage of human resources with new technological expertise (such as Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence) has led to a salary imbalance in the market, and a potential risk for employees who work in other specialties. They might be unemployed or paid a lower salary,” he was quoted as saying in the “Information Technology Labor Market Report 2019” released in March by VietnamWorks, which belongs to Navigos Group.

A report from ManpowerGroup (NYSE: MAN), titled “Humans Wanted: Robots Need You” also shows rising demand for people with IT skills.

Sixteen per cent of companies expect to increase their headcount in IT, five times more than those expecting a decrease, according to the report.

The ManpowerGroup surveyed 19,000 employers in 44 countries about the impact of automation on job growth in the next two years.

The report showed that 87 per cent of employers globally plan to increase or maintain headcount as a result of automation.

Organisations investing in digital activities and shifting tasks to robots are creating the most jobs.

Companies that are digitising are growing, and that growth is producing more and new kinds of jobs.

Organisations that are already automating tasks and progressing in their digital transformation are most confident of increasing headcount, the report said.

Global talent shortages are at a 12-year high and new skills are appearing as fast as others disappear. More companies are planning to build talent than ever before, and this trend shows no sign of slowing.

"The focus on robots eliminating jobs is distracting us from the real issue," said Jonas Prising, chairman and CEO of ManpowerGroup.

"More and more robots are being added to the workforce, but humans are too. Tech is here to stay and it's our responsibility as leaders to become chief learning officers and work out how we integrate humans with machines,” he said.

Pham Hoang Trung Hieu, 35, who works at an IT company in Japan, and has 12 years of experience in the field, told Việt Nam News: “Vietnamese IT engineers have more chances of getting jobs in both domestic and foreign labour markets than in the past.”

They can work in Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and other countries, Hieu said, adding that they should also have communication skills in foreign languages such as English or Japanese.

“IT universities in the country provide basic knowledge for engineers to get a job in the domestic labour market. And then, they can improve their skills and foreign language proficiency so they can work in foreign markets,” he added.

Djoann Fal, co-founder and CEO of GetLinks, added that Vietnamese IT engineers’ skills were at the same level as staff at technology companies such as Google and Facebook.

In a flat and open world, IT engineers with good skills can work anywhere and can find jobs through many channels such as online recruitment websites, Google Search, LinkedIn, and IT communities on social media.

High salaries

Specialty-based salary statistics show that engineers with new knowledge such as Blockchain and AI receive the highest salaries, which are higher than other specialty groups.

Engineers that develop software related to Blockchain receive an average salary of US$2,200, followed by $1,800 for AI-related software and $1,600 for Full Stack.

Solution architects receive a salary of about $1,750; agile/scrum engineers $1,500 and project managers $1,370.

Most respondents said they were receiving a lower salary than expected. The lowest was about $300 and the highest was about $1000.

Management-level engineers in HCM City expect a salary of $2,600, but only receive $1,550. Front-end engineers in Hanoi expect a salary of $1,400 but receive a salary of $635.

VNS