VietNamNet Bridge – Staff recruitment in HCM City dropped by 2.9 per cent this year compared to 2011, according to the city's Centre for Forecasting Manpower Needs and Labour Market Information.

Students participate in a job fair at HCM City's Youth Cultural Palace. Staff recruitment in the city dropped by 2.9 per cent this year.

Tran Anh Tuan, the centre's permanent deputy head, said that companies' financial difficulties had contributed to the drop in recruitment.

The unemployment rate in the city this year rose as a result.

According to the city's Statistics Office, nearly 12,500 enterprises closed during the first half of the year.

Unlike previous years, the recruitment need fell by more than 50 per cent for manual workers for industries in textiles, footwear, food processing, electronics and telecommunications, and construction and architecture.

Human resource needs for the services and marketing sectors were at the top of the list this year.

Of the total 271,063 new recruits this year, more than 18 per cent were in the service sector and more than 18 per cent in marketing.

Tuan said that more applicants in those fields would continue to be needed.

He predicted that the business community would need about 270,000 employees next year, and that 27 per cent of that total number would be needed for marketing-trading and 20 per cent for services.

This year, finance and banking jobs were not included in the top of the recruitment list.

Many banks have restructured and laid off employees.

Tuan said this trend in the banking and finance sector would continue in the future.

Currently, there are too many graduates for too few jobs in the finance sector.

For example, nearly 34 per cent of 13,942 high school students interviewed by the centre said they planned to apply for admission to finance-banking faculties at university.

Tuan said the number of applicants for all kinds of jobs in HCM City increased quarter-by-quarter this year.

In the first quarter, more than 20,000 people needed jobs; in the second quarter, 35,000; and in the third quarter, 40,000.

Salary surveys of 2,080 enterprises in the city in the fourth quarter showed that salaries for manual workers were between VND2.5 million and VND2.9 million (US$119-138).

According to the surveys, skilled employees received salaries between VND5 million and VND10 million ($238-476). Managers received an average of VND10 million ($476).

Source: VNS