FDI firms in central Vietnam province crave highly-skilled workforce

With many FDI factories on the verge of becoming operational, Nghe An province in central Vietnam is grappling with high demand for high-quality personnel.

According to the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, as of last year, the province had 2.23 million residents of working age out of a total of more than 3.4 million, or 64.85%.

Nghe An ranks second out of 14 provinces in the north-central region in the size of its labor force, behind Thanh Hoa.

Currently, 164 foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises in the province have hired more than 49,000 workers.

Labor demand has surged in Nghe An as a result of favorable socio-economic development policies, especially those facilitating production, business and development of industrial parks and clusters. An improved local investment environment has resulted in a rapid increase in the number of FDI enterprises.

With businesses within and outside the province stepping up recruitment in H1/2024, things are looking good for the local labor market.

According to the Management Board of the Southeast Economic Zone, demand for labor will soar in the economic zone and industrial parks as the facilities of many large-scale FDI enterprises become operational.

These include Luxshare-ICT Nghe An 1 - Factory No. 2 and Luxshare Nghe An 2, Sunny, Shandong, Runergy, and Goertek Vina of China; Everwin of Hong Kong; and JuTeng, Foxconn and Radiant of Taiwan.

Businesses in the province’s economic zone and industrial parks will need over 29,945 workers in the second half of this year and about 40,000 in 2025.

Key FDI projects alone have registered to recruit 98,701 workers from 2025 to 2029, mainly in electronic components manufacturing and green energy.

It will not be easy to meet this need for high-quality labor, the board said.

Job hopping

With the rapid development of projects at local industrial parks and resultant rise in labor demand, a high rate of labor turnover – as people quit and hop jobs frequently – has caused recruitment and retention difficulties for FDI enterprises, especially for skilled and high-quality workers.

Tran Duy Hung, head of the employment and labor safety division under the provincial Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, said Nghe An ranked 10th nationwide in FDI attraction. He said they expected that more and more enterprises, especially foreign-invested ones, to flock to the province, leading to even higher demand for labor.

The official said a lack of essential infrastructure works serving the needs of workers in the economic zone and industrial parks – roads, social housing, housing for low-income people, kindergartens, medical facilities, entertainment areas, markets and supermarkets – was hindering local efforts to attract workers, especially high-skilled ones, from other provinces.

In addition, local workers were getting many opportunities to work outside the province and even abroad thanks to reduced costs and stable jobs with income five to eight times higher than what they would get locally, he added.

Hung said the increasing demand for labor has led to more frequent job quitting and hopping, especially among young and unmarried workers and those working far from home.

Job-hopping was mainly triggered by unsuitable jobs and low salaries, he said.

"To solve the labor shortage, businesses need to constantly improve working conditions, occupational safety and hygiene; support workers by covering fuel and housing expenses; and offer better wages so that workers feel secure about staying long-term with companies,” he said.

“Quenching the thirst for high-quality labor in Nghe An requires many solutions implemented synchronously,” he added.