In the first half of the year demand for workers rose 34 per cent compared to 5 per cent in 2013 and 25 per cent for 2014 as a whole, making it the highest growth in the last three years, according to the Online Recruitment Market Report released on July 3 by VietnamWorks, an online recruitment company.

Job categories with traditionally high recruitment demand like IT - Software and Accounting all grew rapidly, CEO of VietnamWorks Mr. Gaku Echizenya said. “Jobseekers today have more options than ever for their dream jobs,” he said.

Recruitment demand has been growing since 2013, the report noted. Most job categories with traditionally high recruitment demand have all grown by at least 20 per cent. IT - Software added 1,200 more jobs compared to 2014, making it one of the highest growing job categories. Meanwhile, architecture and interior design grew by 600 jobs in the first half, an unexpected result compared to 758 jobs last year as a whole.

Overall, job categories where demand grew the most were architecture and interior design (98 per cent), consulting (95 per cent), retail and wholesale (58 per cent), advertising, promotions, and PR (51 per cent), and product and processing (49 per cent).

Recruitment demand was spread across job levels, with the experienced level having the greatest demand (66 per cent). Meanwhile, manager level, team leader and supervisor level, director level, and new graduate and entry level accounted for 16 per cent, 12 per cent, 3 per cent and 3 per cent, respectively, of all recruitment demand in the first half.

Some job categories were extremely competitive. The “hottest” category was, as usual, Accounting, with a very high competition rate of 1/85, or 85 applications on average for every position.

Meanwhile, other job categories such as education and training, pharmaceuticals and biotech, arts - design, agriculture and forestry, medical - healthcare, and airlines, tourism and hotels had relatively less competition.

The competition rate among the cities and regions did not vary much, with the leader being Ho Chi Minh City, as expected. In the first half the city saw the second largest number of job openings and the largest number of job applicants, making it the center of recruitment and job hunting activities in Vietnam.

VET