VietNamNet Bridge – At least 330,000 people need jobs this year in HCM City, but there will only be about 265,000 job vacancies, according to the deputy director of the city's Centre for Human Resources Forecasting and Labour Market Information.

Candidates submit job applications in HCM City's District 5 Cultural Centre. At least 330,000 people are seeking jobs this year in the city.

Tran Anh Tuan said that job opportunities would mainly exist in the fields of mechanics, construction, IT, services, health, tourism, electronics and electricity services. Industrial parks and export processing zones need about 30,000 people.

Of the 330,000 job seekers, 70,000 had no job in 2014. Of the total number, 150,000 were new graduates and 70,000 were from other provinces and cities.

This year, the labour market requires higher quality, skilled workers.

Tuan said recruitment demands for high-ranking managers and high-quality human resources were expected to increase sharply compared to last year.

However, many graduates from university are lacking professional skills, career ethics and foreign-language skills.

The labour market is seeing severe competition between experienced staff and new university graduates.

Experienced staff occupy 85 per cent of the total labour force, an increase of 40 per cent compared to 2013.

Higher quality candidates squeeze out new graduates looking for work, particularly those who have few professional skills, leading to a high unemployment rate among these graduates.

In addition, the allocation of human resources in the city remains unbalanced in various economic sectors, creating a gap between supply and demand.

Some companies' work and salary policies demotivate staff, thus decreasing productivity.

In addition, vocational training is still not sought by students as most young people (76 per cent) and families still consider university study as the key to success.

Imbalance of labour demand-supply

* Construction-Architecture: labour demand has fallen 38 per cent compared to 2013. The job vacancy has met only 55 per cent of demand.

* IT: Labour supply has satisfied 42 per cent of companies' recruitment demand.

* Textile and garment, leather footwear: The sectors always require skilled workers, especially for managers and designers. There has been a drop of 20 per cent in the need for employees without training.

* Tourism services, restaurant-hotel: Recruitment demand has increased sharply, by 65 per cent compared to 2013.

* Finance-Banking: Recruitment demand has increased 10-5 per cent per year, mainly requiring high-quality human resources, skilled labourers and those good at a foreign language.

VNS