More than 50% of companies manage to keep employees, ensuring their wages during COVID-19 outbreak: report

More than half the companies in information technology, finance- banking-insurance and import-export have not laid off employees or cut salaries or benefits during the prolonged pandemic, according to a report by recruitment company VietnamWorks.

The East Asia University of Technology in Ha Noi. The information technology industry has had the highest demand for workers during the COVID-19 outbreak. — VNA Photo

According to the report, when the outbreak is controlled, 50 per cent of enterprises plan to recruit new and inexperienced employees since they still need to meet overheads after many months without any business.

But with society and the economy gradually entering a new normal, workers too are likely to have new requirements, the report warned.

They might not only look for attractive salaries or benefits but also consider the working mode and operating model of the employer, and so businesses need to come up with new strategies to attract talent, it said.

‘COVID-19 and The Labour Market in 2021: Situations and Solutions’ collected data from 400 enterprises and 1200 job seekers in August, which showed 49.9 per cent either sacked workers or cut wages. Some 11.6 per cent continued to hire. But 3 per cent stopped operating temporarily, 7.3 per cent laid off employees but did not cut salaries or benefits and 9.4 per cent chose to lay off employees and cut salaries. The rate of nearly 50% that did not cut personnel and kept the salary and benefits in 2021 was higher than in 2020 at 43.2%. These are mainly information technology enterprises; finance/banking/insurance and import and export

Businesses in the food, hotel, tourism, education, construction, and architecture sectors were severely affected, leading to a high number of lay-offs and huge cuts in salaries and benefits. Employees in the administration/secretarial, sales and customer service departments were the first to be sacked.

At the highest salary and welfare cuts of up to 80%, there are about 3.7% of enterprises, mainly in the restaurant/hotel/tourism industries; educations. There are 9.9% of businesses that cut 50-75% of salary and benefits, these are the education/training industry.

37.9% of enterprises have cut salaries and benefits by 25-50%, focusing on real estate/short-term and long-term rental industries; construction/architecture and machining/processing/manufacturing; 29.2% of businesses have cut 15%-20% of salary and benefits during difficult times. These enterprises are in the import/export industry; commercial/retail/wholesale; advertising/online marketing/communication services

There are 19.3% of enterprises cutting at the lowest level is 5-10% of salary and benefits. These are enterprises with more than 1,000 employees from the electronics/telecommunications industry; finance/banking/insurance.

Huge worker demand in HCM City

According to the Youth Employment Service Centre of HCM City, many companies in commercial services, delivery, accounting, banking, and IT need a large number of workers now.

The centre is carrying out a programme to help unemployed workers find jobs, rent cheap rooms and get free COVID tests.

It is also working with authorities in Ninh Thuan, Soc Trang, Dong Thap, Ben Tre, and Binh Dương provinces to help people there find jobs in HCM City.

The Employment Service Centre under the city Department of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs is co-operating with labour agencies in districts to organise online job fairs to bring enterprises and workers together.

A report by the HCM City Centre for Forecasting Manpower Needs and Labour Market Information shows city businesses will need 44,000-57,000 workers in the year’s last quarter.

The centre said this is the time when businesses increase production to meet the surging demand during the Lunar New Year (Tet) holidays in the early part of the new year.

It added that demand for labour is high in trade-commerce, IT, customer care, tourism, hotels and restaurants, electricity, food, and construction.