About 700 businesses based in industrial parks and export processing zones, or 65 percent of the total firms, resumed their operations on February 24, the first working day after a nine-day Lunar New Year holiday (Tet).

Around 80-85 percent of employees at these companies returned to work, according to the HCM City Export Processing Zone and Industrial Park Authority (Hepza).

Hepza Office Manager Tran Cong Khanh said the rest of the businesses will return to their normal operations in the next two or three days.

He explained that since a number of workers hail from distant provinces in the northern and central regions, many firms decided to extend the holiday to allow them time to return to HCM City.

State agencies and the local business circle have worked to provide support and welfare for workers during Tet, contributing to a stabilised labour market, said Tran Anh Tuan, Deputy Director of the city’s Centre for Human Resources Forecast and Labour Market Information.

He added that a post-Tet labour shortage is unlikely as workers want steady employment.

The centre predicts around 23,000 job vacancies will be available in March, higher than the two previous months, mostly in the garment-footwear, plastic-packaging production, food processing, construction, information technology, machinery, and marketing sectors.-VNA