The race to find seasonal workers at the end of the year.
Demand for manpower is high as businesses enter the final stages of order fulfillment, but recruiting enough people remains a challenging problem. From the commercial service sector to manufacturing units, the race to find workers is heating up as job seekers have more options regarding employment and income.
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Thanh Nga/Present: Hong Toai •23/10/2026
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In the final months of the year, as consumer demand and service activities begin to accelerate, many small and medium-sized enterprises in the trade and service sectors proactively seek seasonal workers to prepare for the peak business season. However, recruiting at this time is not simply about supplementing manpower, but also a race to find experienced workers who are willing to work and can commit throughout the peak season.
At Bongda restaurant, recruitment is underway. Despite having 35 employees, which is sufficient for managing shifts, the restaurant is still recruiting 10 more waitstaff and 2 cashiers to prepare for serving customers during the year-end and Lunar New Year holidays. Not only is the restaurant owner recruiting the necessary number of staff, but they are also proactively creating a reserve workforce, maintaining an additional 5-6 workers on a rotating basis, paid hourly at 14,000-20,000 VND per hour.
According to Mr. Nguyen Xuan Dung, owner of Bongda restaurant, every year, the demand for finding and recruiting workers in the food and beverage service industry increases towards the end of the year. A characteristic of this industry is that the number of customers can increase rapidly during peak hours, weekends, or holidays. If only staffing enough to meet normal demand, restaurants can easily become overloaded when the number of customers surges. Therefore, hiring additional workers to proactively manage the workforce is a strategy many businesses choose.
In reality, in the food service industry, recruiting staff is difficult, but retaining employees throughout peak season is even more challenging. Waiter/waitress jobs require stamina, agility, problem-solving skills, and a customer-oriented attitude. During busy periods, work pressure increases significantly, and not all seasonal workers can immediately adapt to the work pace.
Conversely, for many young workers, the peak season at the end of the year opens up opportunities to earn extra income and gain experience. Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, a third-year economics student currently working at Bongda restaurant in Vincom Shopping Center, said she has been working as a waitress in restaurants and eateries for over a year. Thanks to the experience she has accumulated, Ngan can proactively choose a work schedule that suits her studies, usually taking shifts on weekends.
According to Ngan, waitressing is quite hard work, requiring high concentration and the ability to coordinate smoothly with other staff members. However, the income is commensurate with the effort. For students with experience, part-time work not only helps cover living expenses but also provides an opportunity to hone communication skills, problem-solving abilities, and familiarize themselves with a real-world work environment.
While the food and beverage industry needs manpower to serve a surge in customers, the logistics and transportation industry is also entering a period of significant pressure. In the final months of the year, online shopping becomes more active, increasing the volume of goods needing sorting, transportation, and delivery to customers, thus driving up the demand for additional delivery personnel.
A representative from Viettel Post, which has a network of 33 post offices in Nghe An province, stated that recruitment is currently facing many difficulties due to workforce turnover, with some employees quitting mid-term. The company continues to recruit, but maintaining a stable workforce remains a challenge...
The pressure comes not only from the increased demand for delivery services but also from competition among different job types. Nguyen Thach, a delivery driver, said that previously, many workers tended to stay with one company because of relatively stable income. However, nowadays, a segment of those in the profession are considering switching to independent delivery for individuals if the income is higher.
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Not only service businesses, but also many manufacturing companies step up recruitment in the last months of the year to meet order deadlines. The garment, electronics, and other labor-intensive industries often need to supplement their workforce, especially when increasing production capacity to serve the year-end market.
According to information from the Department of Internal Affairs, the agency has collected recruitment needs from 74 businesses, totaling over 9,000 job positions. This figure indicates that recruitment needs exist in many businesses, creating job opportunities for workers. However, the number of positions needed does not necessarily mean the number of workers ready to take on the job. The gap between recruitment needs and the actual supply remains an issue that needs to be addressed by both businesses and workers.
Mr. Le Dang Anh, Director of Vinayuuki International Cooperation Joint Stock Company, said: The fourth quarter is usually the period when businesses accelerate the completion of orders. This is also a time when the labor market experiences many fluctuations as a segment of workers seek new jobs with more attractive salaries and benefits.
According to Mr. Le Dang Anh, the unit has received requests for seasonal labor from many businesses in the electronics and garment industries, with advertised incomes ranging from 8 to 10 million VND per month. The work mainly involves assembling components and operating machinery on production lines. These positions can create job opportunities for unskilled laborers, depending on the specific health, skills, and working hours requirements of each company. One of the current difficulties is the relatively common problem of workers quitting or changing jobs. There are cases where workers have participated in interviews but then do not show up for the job, or continue searching for other opportunities even after being offered a suitable position.
Another issue raised by Mr. Le Dang Anh is the situation where businesses recruit through multiple separate channels, leading to scattered and potentially overlapping information. Job seekers have to independently search and compare job postings, while not all job advertisements provide complete information about the work location, net salary, working hours, or benefits. This makes the job search process time-consuming and hinders the connection between the right person and the right position.
Notably, unverified job postings create loopholes for scammers to exploit. Offers of easy jobs, high salaries, simple procedures, or even promises of overseas employment with attractive incomes can trap job seekers. When cases of fraud or human trafficking are discovered, this cautious and suspicious attitude can also spread to legitimate recruitment channels.
According to many experts, in the long term, the issue of seasonal labor at the end of the year lies not only in the number of people needed, but also in the ability to connect supply and demand and maintain stable labor relations. For businesses, proactively building a reserve workforce, improving working conditions, and having appropriate compensation policies will help reduce dependence on last-minute recruitment drives.
As the peak season approaches, the race to find workers is sure to heat up. But recruiting new people is only the first step. More importantly, it's about creating jobs that are transparent enough, offer competitive salaries, and provide suitable conditions so that workers are willing to take on the job and stay with the company.
