Attracting labor for FDI enterprises in Nghe An - Part 1
Developing human resources to ensure sufficient quantity, skills and knowledge to work in FDI enterprises operating in the province not only brings benefits to enterprises but also to the community. Localities with good human resources will be a strong point to attract more investment interest from FDI enterprises.
Lesson 1:
The big picture
In recent years, attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) into Nghe An province has achieved positive results, contributing significantly to the process of economic restructuring of the province, thereby improving people's lives. In fact, the demand for labor recruitment of FDI enterprises will continue to increase in the coming time.
Promote socio-economic development
According to the statistics of Nghe An Provincial Statistics Office, after 38 years of implementing the Law on Foreign Investment in Vietnam, 27 years of attracting FDI in Nghe An, accumulated to June 30, 2024, Nghe An province has attracted 137 FDI projects with a total registered investment capital of more than 4.165 billion USD, from 14 countries and territories, operating in many economic sectors. From the 20th position (in 2021) in the country in attracting FDI capital, from 2022, Nghe An entered the group of 10 localities attracting the largest FDI in the country.
Nghe An is also one of the few localities in the country that has attracted 6 of the world's leading technology corporations in the production of electronic components and equipment to invest and do business, including: Foxconn, Luxshare, Goertek, Everwin, Juteng and Sunny. These are strong brands with great reputation and effective production and business activities, environmentally friendly, strictly complying with international law and the laws of the host country.
Statistics also show that the FDI sector currently accounts for 45% of the province's export turnover, contributing to accelerating the economic restructuring process by focusing on investment in industry and services.
Currently, about 68% of total FDI capital in the province is invested in the electronics industry and green energy. The FDI sector contributes significantly to promoting economic development and economic restructuring, forming key industries, especially: electronics technology, energy, steel, auto components, etc.
Besides, the FDI sector has been making significant contributions to the industrialization and modernization cause, not only creating a large volume of products and services, but also creating many jobs and improving the quality of local human resources.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic, with the presence of many FDI projects in the province, many Nghe An workers no longer have to look for jobs in industrial parks in the South or the North, but have the opportunity to find jobs with salaries commensurate with their training level right at home.
Currently, 164 FDI enterprises (accounting for 1.05% of enterprises in the province) have created direct jobs for 49,000 workers, accounting for 14% of the province's workforce. In addition, FDI enterprises also create many other jobs indirectly due to the impact of stimulating domestic investment (developing supporting enterprises, industries providing goods and services for FDI enterprises). Thanks to that, the province's labor market is shifting positively, reducing the proportion of labor in agriculture, forestry and fishery, increasing the proportion in industry, construction and services.
According to Mr. Le Tien Tri - Head of the Southeast Economic Zone Management Board: Thanks to the introduction of advanced technologies, modern production lines, new business management models and thinking into Nghe An, FDI enterprises have been contributing to the formation of a higher quality workforce, including skilled workers, technology engineers, service experts, and senior management staff. The demand for technical labor in the FDI sector is shifting strongly to the occupational group of "technical assembly and automation workers"; in addition, the workforce in the FDI sector must have additional foreign language skills (English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean...) and the ability to work in groups, and have an industrial style...
These trends have contributed to improving the competitiveness of Nghe An workers, promoting the transition from simple, low-income workers to skilled, high-income workers. The survey shows that, during the working process at FDI enterprises, many workers have changed their industrial style, better approached and understood corporate culture, improved their technical skills and expertise, management skills, foreign language skills, etc.
Labor supply and demand situation
The remarkable development in attracting foreign investment in Nghe An, besides bringing positive contributions to the socio-economic development of the province, also raises the issue of ensuring the supply of labor for FDI projects operating in the province. This is one of the important factors in "retaining" large foreign investors and enterprises to "lay down their nests" for a long time.
According to statistics, the population of Nghe An province in 2023 is 3,439,149 people, of which the working-age population is 2,230,474 people, accounting for 64.85% of the total population. The size of Nghe An province's labor force is ranked 2nd out of 6 provinces in the North Central region (only after Thanh Hoa province). Every year, Nghe An has 33,000 - 35,000 people of working age.
Along with the number of soldiers and police officers who have completed their service and returned to their localities, the number of university, college, intermediate and vocational school graduates returning to the province to find jobs, unemployed workers in enterprises, workers in areas with land use conversion who need jobs, workers who have returned to the country from temporary jobs abroad, unemployed workers in urban areas and underemployed workers in rural areas, each year Nghe An has about 60,000 - 70,000 workers in need of jobs.
In particular, after the Covid-19 pandemic, Nghe An has tens of thousands of workers returning home from industrial "capitals" such as Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Dong Nai. Most of these workers have experience and skills that have been trained and produced.
According to the report of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, the current labor force working in the economy is 1,597,231 people; the trained labor force accounts for 69%, of which 28.6% have diplomas and certificates. The general unemployment rate of the whole province is 2.03% (of which urban areas are 2.22%, rural areas are 1.99%). The number of workers from other provinces working in the province is 2,963 people; the number of Nghe An workers working in other provinces is about 698,900 people; the number of foreign workers working in the province is 1,934 people.
According to a preliminary survey by the Employment Service Center, in the first 6 months of 2024, the demand for labor recruitment in enterprises inside and outside the province is large, with 339 enterprises needing to recruit 45,049 workers. For FDI enterprises alone, in 2023 and the first 6 months of 2024, the province has supported and connected to provide 15,000 workers.
According to the report of the Southeast Economic Zone Management Board, in 2024 and the following years, in the economic zone, industrial parks will have more FDI enterprises with large production scale and employing a lot of labor coming into operation (such as: Luxshare-ICT Nghe An 1 - factory number 2, Luxshare Nghe An 2, Goertek Vina, Everwin, JuTeng, Sunny, Shandong, Runergy, Foxconn, Radiant, Hoa Loi, Tan Viet, Thien Nang ...), therefore, the demand for labor recruitment will increase.
According to the survey results of the Southeast Economic Zone Management Board for enterprises in the economic zone and industrial parks of Nghe An, the demand for labor recruitment in the last 6 months of 2024 and 2025 continues to increase: in the last 6 months of 2024, the demand for labor recruitment is over 29,945 people, in 2025, the demand for recruitment is over 40,000 workers.
With the rapid development of projects in industrial parks in the province, the demand for labor of enterprises in industrial parks is increasing rapidly and mainly focuses on industries such as: manufacturing electronic components, green energy, garment exports, auto parts, electronics... It is forecasted that in the period from 2025 to 2029, only counting the key FDI projects in the Southeast Economic Zone, industrial parks will need to register to employ about 98,701 workers.