VietNamNet Bridge - A manpower shortage is affecting the development of the IT (information technology) industry. 

The labor shortage in IT industry is serious

Truong Gia Binh, chair of the Vietnam Software and Digital Content Association, said the labor shortage is so serious that IT firms have to compete for workers.

The hunt for officers by IT firms has led to an alarmingly high job-hopping rate. To retain IT officers, firms have to raise salaries, while production remains unstable. 

IT workers are in very high demand this year. The average pay in the industry is 3-4 times higher than many other fields.

If the situation lasts a long time, this will badly affect Vietnam’s competitiveness, because the labor cost in the industry will be increasingly high. 

Meanwhile, the high job-hopping rate will make it impossible for IT firms to deliver products on time and lead to unsustainable development of the industry.

Vietnam’s software outsourcing industry is well known in the world. Gartner placed Vietnam in the top 6 Asian countries in the field in 2016. 

However, Tran Phuc Hong, vice president of TMA Solutions, said the limited human resources growth has had a big impact on IT industry development. 

According to Hoang Nam Tien, CEO of FPT Software, the company needs to employ several thousands of workers a year to serve its development plan. By the end of 2016, FPT Software had 10,000 workers and it plans to enlarge the workforce by three times by 2020.

Nguyen Phuong Mai, CEO of Navigos Search, confirmed that in recent years, IT has been among five industries which need workers the most. It is expected that Vietnam will need 400,000 IT candidates by the end of this year.

Navigos once predicted that the demand for IT officers in Vietnam in 2018 will be 20 times higher than 2016. Supply can satisfy half of demand.

Over many years, IT firms have been struggling with the labor shortage. 

Organizing workshops to discuss job opportunities, employing interns and organizing competitions are the most common ways the firms find workers. Some IT firms even give awards in cash to their workers if they can bring new staff to the companies.

Of IT firms, FPT, the Vietnamese largest IT group, with many subsidiaries, need workers the most.  FPT in the last few years has organized ‘Digital Competition’, an annual competition for university students with prizes worth up to several billions of dong.

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