High-tech manufacturing was the top sector in terms of demand for senior managers in the third quarter, according to executive search firm Navigos Search.

It was followed by fast-moving consumer goods, information technology, banking and finance, and professional services.

At the same job level and position, high-tech manufacturing companies paid 2.5 times the salary that retail companies did and almost four times higher than the hospitality industry did.

Investment from Hong Kong, Taiwan and China continues to increase sharply, resulting in a significant increase in demand for Chinese-speaking candidates.

Most of these companies have factories in China and plan to expand or move a part or all of their production to Vietnam, and so need personnel who can speak Chinese and work directly with the management team brought from China.

But since candidates who have knowledge of and experience in technical fields and can speak Chinese are relatively scarce, many businesses have temporarily opted for recruiting interpreters.

Navigos Search said many businesses from Europe in the textile and footwear segments tend to search for home-based candidates through HR agencies in Vietnam, and they would report to headquarters in European countries like Italy, Germany and France.

In the commercial/industrial business industry, investment enterprises from North America tend to set up representative offices in India and also look for candidates to work independently in Vietnam but report directly to the Indian office. 

They get paid salaries of 2,000-4,000 USD plus travel, communication and other allowances.

A report by online recruitment website VietnamWorks said the three sectors with the highest recruitment demand in the year’s first half in manufacturing were production/processing; mechanical engineering and electrical/electronics.

Enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Binh Duong, Dong Nai and Hai Duong had the highest demand and offered highly competitive salaries.

In terms of growth in labour demand and supply in the last five years, Ha Nam topped with demand increasing by 421 percent and supply by 615 percent in this year’s first half since the same period in 2014.

Statistics from the HCM City Centre for Forecasting Manpower Needs and Labour Market Information also showed that production/processing, mechanical engineering and electrical/electronics had high demand in the third quarter.

This month, companies are expected to need 26,000 workers, a lot of them in the manufacturing sector.

According to the centre, out of 6,008 workers it surveyed in the third quarter, 11.27 percent wanted to change jobs. But it did not expect many workers to change jobs now since it is bonus time.

But VietnamWorks’ report showed that 75 percent of surveyed candidates in the manufacturing industry intend to change jobs by the end of this year.

The survey found that 83 percent of people at the director and higher levels also want to switch jobs, while the number was 76 percent at the team leader/manager level.