The Vietnamese labour market is poised to see a number of positive signs in the near future with between 70,000 and 80,000 workers who had previously lost their jobs set to rejoin the workforce each month starting from May.

According to statistics compiled by the Hanoi Centre for Employment Services from February to April of this year, more than 1,940 domestic enterprises registered their intentions to recruit staff for a total of 13,562 positions. The majority of jobs were in sectors such as production, mechanical engineering, manufacturing, and garment making.

Ta Van Thao, director of the centre, stated that the demand for new workers is mostly coming from small and medium-sized enterprises, adding that once the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is brought under control it will lead to a more positive economic outlook, therefore serving to increase demand among the labour market.

Vietnamworks, a popular local website that is used for online human resources and recruitment, has carried out a post-COVID-19 social-distancing survey of 400 companies along with 3,400 job seekers. The findings show that up to 25% of firms would be keen on restarting their recruitment efforts as soon as possible, whilst 14% of respondents added that they had already resumed.

Vietnamworks stated that despite a 20% growth in terms of the number of jobs provided during the first week of May, a supply-demand balance is yet to be achieved, meaning that competition is higher than ever.