Vietnam Samho, which makes shoes for big international brands like Adidas and New Balance is struggling to find factory workers for its southern Vietnam factory, VN Express is reporting. It currently needs about 1,500 workers but has only managed to recruit about 300 in the last two months.
Some of the challenges raised in this article, with respect to hiring workers, is that workers have more job options other than factory work, workers no longer need to move to population centres with many manufacturing operations opening in tier two cities and provinces, and workers that moved back to their hometowns during the COVID-19 pandemic have still not returned on the back of the general uncertainty that the pandemic created.
Of note, a by product of the phenomenal growth in foreign direct investment in Vietnam is that the demand for workers has grown too. But whereas Vietnam has a huge available workforce it is not always where it needs to be. Migration for workers is an option, however, in big population centres like Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City the cost of living can be quite expensive and substantially eat into a worker’s wages. With this in mind, the key takeaway from the linked article could be that foreign manufacturing firms, in terms of labour, may be better placed considering establishing themselves outside of the big cities.
See also: Vietnam’s Labour Law for Foreign Firms in 2024: Quick Read