Final episode: Reviving the dream of the countryside by working near home
With great efforts, in recent years Nghe An has attracted many businesses to invest in the locality, thereby creating jobs for tens of thousands of workers in the province. However, in recent years, businesses in the province still lack labor, each year the industrial parks in the area need up to 40,000 workers but cannot recruit enough.
Author: Thanh Nga - My Ha - Diep Thanh
Publication date: June 23, 2025 - Technical: Diep Thanh
With great efforts, in recent years Nghe An has attracted many businesses to invest in the locality, thereby creating jobs for tens of thousands of workers in the province. However, in recent years, businesses in the province still lack labor, each year the industrial parks in the area need up to 40,000 workers but cannot recruit enough.
Nghe An currently has about 1.6 million people of working age, accounting for 43.24% of the province's population. However, industrial parks in the province often fall into a state of labor shortage. In 2023, nearly 1,000 enterprises in Nghe An registered to recruit about 150,000 positions. In 2024 alone, in the first 6 months of the year, 45,049 workers were welcomed by enterprises, but the actual number met is still far from expectations.
According to statistics, by the end of 2024, the whole province will have about 700,000 workers working outside the province and nearly 80,000 people working abroad. This huge number means that industrial parks in the province are often in a state of labor shortage. Typically, at Luxshare - ICT Nghe An Co., Ltd., although many active recruitment measures have been applied, each day only 60-90 applications are received, not enough to meet the demand of 1,500 workers per month. In the second half of 2024, Nghe An province still needs to recruit nearly 30,000 new workers to ensure uninterrupted production and business activities.
By 2025, the labor shortage could be at an all-time high, with a need to recruit over 40,000 workers. In particular, foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises will have a huge recruitment need, estimated at 98,701 workers from 2025 to 2029. This is a problem that cannot be easily solved without timely solutions from local authorities and businesses.
In February - April 2025, the Southeast Economic Zone organized 2 job fairs with more than 40,000 job positions welcoming Nghe An workers. The first job fair in 2025 was organized by Nghe An province at VSIP Nghe An Industrial Park, opening up many job opportunities for workers looking for jobs in many fields in Nghe An as well as helping businesses recruit abundant labor resources to meet production and business requirements. There were 24 businesses participating in consulting and recruiting workers at the fair, with more than 42,000 job positions, including 36,000 unskilled workers and over 4,000 trained workers. After this festival, according to statistics from the Southeast Economic Zone, 12,000 job positions were connected and many workers from the Southern and Northern provinces returned to their hometowns to apply for many factories in VSIP Industrial Park. However, that number was not as expected. And the labor shortage is still happening in enterprises in VSIP Industrial Park.
The job fair in WHA Industrial Park also attracted 12,000 job positions with 15 enterprises in this Industrial Park participating. Here, many workers who have participated in labor export and worked in Industrial Parks in the South and the North also came to learn about job opportunities and positions with stable income.
According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Lien - leader of WHA Group and WHA Industrial Zone Joint Stock Company: In the next 3 years, recruitment demand in WHA Industrial Park will grow strongly in many manufacturing sectors. In 2025, 12,000 workers will be needed; in 2026, 15,000 workers will be needed and in 2027, 15,000 more workers will be needed. In 2025 alone, with many large factories coming into operation, the factories are in need of 2,000 office workers and technically trained workers, especially nearly 10,000 unskilled workers. Job opportunities are open to those who are willing to learn, disciplined and progressive.
Ms. Lien also said that WHA is committed to continuing to accompany schools, training centers and local authorities to ensure that workers not only have jobs, but also have careers and a future in WHA Industrial Park. However, after 2 months of recruitment, businesses still have announced that they cannot recruit half of the required number of workers according to orders.
Faced with the reality of labor shortage, especially high-tech labor, the Standing Committee of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee issued Directive No. 33-CT/TU and Project No. 40-DA/TU of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee to strengthen the Party's leadership in connecting labor supply and demand, solving employment, attracting labor for domestic enterprises and FDI enterprises in Nghe An province, period 2025-2030. Implementing this direction, authorities at all levels and the Southeast Economic Zone have deployed many job connection programs to bring the best opportunities for workers as well as businesses.
According to the representative of the Southeast Economic Zone, in order to retain employees, businesses need to regularly update salaries, bonuses, and benefits in neighboring localities, thereby adjusting competitive salary policies. In addition, businesses are also encouraged to cooperate with vocational training institutions to build training chains according to orders, linking training with use. Supporting vocational training costs, organizing internships, and improving skills will help increase the quality of human resources and reduce the gap between labor supply and demand. In addition, for unskilled workers, priority should be given to workers aged 20-25, creating conditions for them to learn on-site and be linked to vocational training to improve their skills, thereby increasing their income...
To identify labor as a valuable asset, many businesses have had a relatively satisfactory treatment regime. A typical example is Gaojia Optics Technology Vietnam Co., Ltd. in WHA Industrial Park, with 100% investment capital from China, specializing in the production of optical lenses. The unit recruits workers with attractive salaries from 7 to 20 million VND depending on the job position. At the same time, workers living far away will have dormitories, maternity benefits and many other regimes for women of childbearing age. In addition, the company always cares about the lives of workers so that they can wholeheartedly devote themselves to the company. However, for ordinary workers, the salary is very difficult to reach over 10 million VND because the company's orders are not many, and workers will have difficulty working overtime.
Similarly, Viet Glory Co., Ltd. has many benefits and programs for workers. During the Workers' Month of 2025, the company coordinated with the Dien Chau District Labor Federation to organize union meals, support the construction of volleyball courts, and give union shelters to workers. In addition, local authorities and unions at all levels have also made efforts to connect businesses and workers to bring the best benefits to workers. A worker at Viet Glory Co., Ltd. said: If there were no company union, no attention from the company's board of directors, we would not have received such care and wonderful policies. That is the house of gratitude, the free medical examinations and treatments, the care and practical gifts from the company when workers are sick or in trouble...
During the second job fair held at WHA Industrial Park, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Bui Dinh Long said: To do well the task of connecting labor supply and demand, it is necessary to perfect the three-party coordination mechanism in career orientation, student-student streaming, linking training with the actual needs of the labor market; especially in key areas such as: Electricity, electronics, mechanics, information technology, automation engineering, foreign languages and soft skills. Moreover, businesses need to build a satisfactory compensation policy, focusing on a civilized and safe working environment; Identifying employees as valuable assets, to have a satisfactory compensation policy.
According to Mr. Bui Dinh Long, to meet people's employment needs as well as connect labor supply and demand, local authorities need to synchronously complete mechanisms and policies on training and attracting human resources for agricultural and rural areas..
Synchronously implement policies to attract and develop human resources in the agricultural sector, such as: Improving the working environment, income and living conditions; preferential policies to attract students to study agricultural and rural development fields and occupations, with special priority given to local people; supporting the development of the social security and insurance network; enhancing access to social insurance, health insurance and unemployment insurance services for workers in rural areas to ensure people's lives and maintain production.
Planning and developing a job transaction system suitable to the labor market of each region and each locality; Investing in developing industrial and service zones and clusters in rural areas, having investment attraction policies to encourage industrial and service enterprises to invest in rural areas, especially in labor-intensive industries, to gradually reduce the migration of labor from rural to urban areas. Strongly developing the service economy in rural areas from types and scales... to increase the value of agricultural products, create jobs, and attract the labor force not participating in agricultural production. Prioritizing the development of advantageous industries that create many jobs, such as textiles, garments, leather - footwear, embroidery, toys, seafood processing for export...
Employment is one of the basic human needs to ensure life and comprehensive development. The policy of caring for and creating jobs for workers is an urgent issue for the whole society in general and rural areas in particular. When the work of training and creating jobs on the spot for rural workers is concerned, the situation of farmers leaving their homeland will be limited and there will be no more "waves of migration" like today.
Mr. Kha Van Tam - Chairman of Nghe An Provincial Labor Federation said: In recent times, Nghe An Trade Unions at all levels have proactively accompanied businesses in labor recruitment. Specifically, they have coordinated with functional agencies and localities to regularly post recruitment information; participated in organizing job fairs, directly connecting supply and demand at the grassroots level; consulted and supported workers in finding jobs, learning a trade, helping workers access job opportunities in their hometowns; built a working environment that harmonizes interests... At the same time, the trade union also participated in monitoring and proposing support policies on living conditions and working conditions, creating trust for workers to feel secure in their commitment. With the motto "accompanying businesses and workers", the Trade Union organization is strongly committed to joining hands to solve the recruitment problem, contributing to retaining and attracting workers in Nghe An.