Employers give skilled applicants priority in hiring

Employers are increasingly looking at working skills and job-hopping probability rather than "competitive salary requirements" when hiring new graduates, a survey has shown.
Employers are increasingly looking at working skills and job-hoppingprobability rather than "competitive salary requirements" when hiringnew graduates, a survey has shown.

A survey conducted byJobstreet.com of 3,000 new graduates nationwide last month showed that69 percent were unemployed while 72 percent of enterprises haverecruitment demand.

In the segment of young, new graduates, themarket has both demand and supply, said Nguyen Xuan Trinh, MarketingDirector for Jobstreet Vietnam, said at a conference held in HCM City onJuly 23.

"However, new graduates cannot avoid worrying aboutbeing unemployed," Trinh said. "The ‘competitive salary requirement' isno longer the prerequisite that employers consider to make recruitmentdecisions. They look at working skills and job-hopping probability."

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, 425,000 people would graduate during the 2014-15 academic year.

The third quarter of this year has begun with thriving signs in the economy with many more FDI projects.

The country has 17,499 FDI projects and 448,148 operating companies.

TheJobstreet survey also showed that 65 percent of the company has highdemand for recruitment in the second half of this year, especially intrading, information technology and engineering.

At least 10percent of recruitment demand is for new graduates. The fields with thehighest demand for new graduates are information technology, engineeringand customer care.

The biggest problems of the workforce were bad skills and inexperience, especially for new graduates, the survey showed.

At least 50 percent of the new graduates have jobs not related to their main study at university.

Seventeenpercent of them could not find a relevant job, and 45 percent said thatthey were took a temporary job while waiting for a relevant one.

Though54 percent of new graduates said they have no problems with their jobsunrelated to their main study, 46 percent said they had to spend a lotof time to learn skills and knowledge of the job.

Enhancing thequality of the young workforce is not only the task of the educationsector but also the recruitment sector, Angie SW Phang, General Directorof Jobstreet Vietnam, said.

One of the biggest challenges is bringing relevant and appropriate jobs to the workforce, she added.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, Vietnam has a population of 90.5 million.

At least 52.34 million people out of 69.2 million of working age have jobs.

However, 178,000 people with bachelor's or master's degrees are unemployed.

Vietnam compared with region
Thesalary range Vietnam employers offer to new graduates is 2-5 millionVND, accounting for one seventh of the salary for new graduates inMalaysia (14.3 to 16 million VND).

Vietnam also ranks third in the region in the rate of opportunity for new graduates, after Indonesia and Singapore.

Recruitersin Singapore and Malaysia care the most about salary demand, whileVietnam enterprises put working skills at the top, as 84 percent careabout workforce quality and only 14 percent about salary costs.

Vietnameseenterprises said that new graduates not only lack experience but alsorequire time to train skills, which causes enterprises to seekexperienced candidates.

Other employers think new graduates may be unfaithful and job hop.

Surveysconducted by Jobstreet in the region showed that 26-29 percent ofemployees were "faithful" to the first job. The rate was 12 percent inSingapore.

When asked why they did not want to hire newgraduates, 67 percent of enterprises in Vietnam blamed anxiety aboutability and 33 percent blamed the high rate of job hopping.

Malaysians cited bad attitudes, communication skills and high salary requirements as risks of hiring new graduates.

Vietnam ranked fourth out of five countries in the region on English skills.

Only5 percent of Vietnamese new graduates were confident about theirEnglish, and 27 percent said they were weak in overall English skills.

"PoorEnglish skills are now a big disadvantage of the Vietnamese workforce,causing them to lose competitiveness in the global market," Phang said.-VNA

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