There have been some signs of employment recovery in the manufacturing industry, but to be truly positive, it may take until the second half of the year, according to experts.
In the first two months of the year, an estimated 80,000 people left manufacturing and processing enterprises, reducing the labor size of this industry by 1.1% compared to the same period in 2022, according to the General Statistics Office. This is an inevitable result when businesses have to reduce their production scale because consumption has decreased and inventories have increased over the past time.
Still, there are some early signs of a possible job recovery for factory workers.
Pham Quang Anh, director of Dony garment company, said that he is seeing opportunities from the US and Middle East markets. The UK forecasts that industry orders will recover from the second quarter, but new hires may not explode.
“Businesses tend to be lean, giving priority to overtime workers. Overtime is the demand of garment workers while many units are reducing working hours and giving Saturdays off,” he said.
At the recent furniture industry fair 2023, Tran Duc Corporation, which specializes in providing high-class hotel furniture with a scale of 2,000 workers in Binh Duong, also said that within the framework of the event, the business had obtained 57 potential customers and 13 potential customers. This is considered a positive sign for the company’s operations.
This development is similar to the purchasing managers index (PMI) of Vietnam in February published by S&P Global. This research unit assesses that the production situation tends to improve slightly, with a result of 51.2. Levels above 50 reflect active expansion.
“Signs of recovery have only just begun, for the recruitment of production workers to really flourish, it must fall in the second half of the year,” recruitment and payroll firm Adecco stated in its research on Human Resources and Market Outlook. labor 2023.
Accordingly, Adecco recorded that nearly half (47%) of the surveyed enterprises just want to keep their current employees. The rate of increase is slightly lower, at 43%. While, 1.39% is expected to fall 25-50%, and 8.33% to fall below 25%.
This recruitment agency also believes that effective cost control is the driving force affecting this year’s personnel decisions. If more people are needed, businesses can prioritize highly skilled workers who are able to multitask. But quality personnel, the level of competition is high.
In the same opinion, Mr. Quang Anh acknowledged that companies now have the mentality to guard against unexpected risks such as the sudden decrease in orders like the middle of last year. “Enterprises now tend to keep “young” workers, ie a little short of demand to increase productivity. In case of volatility, it is still easier to liquidate physical assets than make bad decisions. waste,” he said.
