Labour market development crucial in the southeastern region

HCM CITY — Strengthening labour strategies, forecasting efforts and creating favourable conditions in the workforce supply-demand chain are all keys to boosting socio-economic development in the southeastern region.

The region is one of the most dynamic economic regions, attracting a large number of workers, so these measures are designed to help them find jobs more easily and facilitate business operations in the region.

Targeting selective investments and high-quality labour

HCM City, which is the central urban area of the southern region and the entire country as well, has an abundant labour supply.

According to the official statistics, the labour force in this city accounts for over eight per cent of the national workforce, with an average annual labour growth rate of about 0.59 per cent.

Each year, the city sees a large influx of new labour market entrants and migrant workers of working age from other provinces and cities, as well as foreign workers coming in to work.

Students attend a job fair in HCM City. VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Vũ

The HCM City’s labour and employment strategy for the 2023-2025 period with a vision to 2030, recently approved by the City People’s Committee, points out some strong advantages in terms of its labour market.

These include a plentiful and diverse workforce, a high-quality vocational education system, a very high demand for labour, a favourable geographical location with international gateway status and a significant appeal to investors and highly skilled workers.

However, the city has to face several challenges in attracting labour including high living costs, which requires careful consideration from workers when deciding to study, live and work in the city.

There are also significant skill gaps among the labour force, leading to a shortage of high-quality workers and a surplus of labour unsuitable for the city’s development-oriented industries.

The labour supply is forecasted to be stable in the city from 2025 to 2030, but trend slightly downward until 2030. Labour demand will be higher than supply from 2023 to 2030.

The increase in labour demand is expected to increase faster compared to supply, particularly from 2027 onwards. This could result in a labour shortage and put pressure on companies to increase wages to attract talent.

The labour demand in the city has been noted as being linked to trends of the developing key economic sectors, digital transformation, industries with high scientific and technological content and developing commerce towards service-oriented trade.

Therefore, to ensure employment, the city needs to prioritise selective investments.

The city should focus on attracting investments in high-tech industrial production, applications of advanced technology while limiting projects that overly depend on low-skilled labour or pose high environmental pollution risks.

Businesses are encouraged to invest in modernising machinery and equipment, advanced technology and developing a green, digital and circular economy.

The city is also developing high-end service sectors which are potential advantages of the city such as tourism, financial centres, wholesale trade, international shopping centres or logistics.

Bà Rịa – Vũng Tàu Province shares the same need in selectively attracting investment linked to jobs for labour, especially high-quality labour.

The province forecasts that there are over 8,500 operating businesses with over 250,000 workers currently in the province.

It is estimated that each year, businesses will need at least 20,000 additional workers, with trained workers accounting for over 80 per cent of the total labour force.

The focus on attracting high-quality labour in the province will be in sectors such as petrochemicals, seaports, logistics, information technology, mechanical engineering, services and urban tourism.

However, it is forecasted that local labour supply cannot meet the demand. Therefore, the province plans to continue focusing on selectively attracting investment to leverage advantages in the maritime economy, industrial development, seaports, services and tourism, transforming the province into a regional industrial centre, a national maritime economic centre, a hub of maritime services in Southeast Asia and a high-quality international tourism centre.

Boosting labour supply and demand connection

The current labour supply-demand situation in HCM City reveals several shortcomings.

Dr. Trương Minh Huy Vũ, deputy director of the HCM City Institute for Development Studies (HIDS), said the labour market operation is not yet fully efficient.

Vũ said: “Some workers struggle to find jobs, while businesses still have to face challenges in hiring suitable labour.”

He also states that the city needs policies to support investment and training aimed at improving the quality of the labour supply-demand connection system, especially online job exchanges and job introduction centres, to effectively connect businesses and workers.

Developing a career and employment information portal that connects provinces, cities, regions and the country is also crucial.

The municipal People’s Committee plans to promote developing the labour demand forecasting system to meet training needs, adapting to the job requirements. The city will enhance the application of information technology to integrate the city’s labour market information system with the national system to promptly update national labour market trends.

HCM City also aims to establish a labour market information system for the ASEAN region, allowing workers in certain industries and occupations to move freely among member countries to create sustainable, productive employment opportunities.

By 2030, the city plans to complete the construction of technical infrastructure, application software, connection systems, data integration and sharing and undertake the transformation to standardise the labour databases.

For Bà Rịa – Vũng Tàu Province, a programme to attract high-quality labour for key economic sectors in the region during the 2024-2030 period is already underway.

The province aims to meet 75 per cent of the demand for high-quality labour by the end of 2025 and meet 90 per cent of that demand by 2030.

To achieve these goals, the province is implementing a synchronised approach.

Functional units need to provide information on economic and social development, labour skill requirements and educational fields needed by local businesses. This initiative aims to offer career paths for workers and educational activities at vocational institutions to meet labour market demands.

The province will also develop an application, called ‘Vieclambariavungtau’, which will provide comprehensive information on recruitment needs and training opportunities.

It is expected to foster connections between labour supply and demand, attracting high-quality workers to the province for employment opportunities. — VNS