Vietnam IT demand quadruples in 10 years: report

The data, recorded by the number of job posts on recruitment website VietnamWorks, shows software developers accounted for half of demand in the 2010-19 period. For years, multinationals like Intel, IBM, Nokia and Microsoft have chosen Vietnam to outsource their software projects.

In terms of annual growth in demand, artificial intelligence developers took the top place at 27 percent, followed by mobile developers (19 percent) and embedded system developers (16 percent).

The average monthly salary employers offer IT staff has almost doubled to $1,466 throughout the decade. For software developers, it almost tripled to $1,527, showing a shortage of human resources in this field.

"Vietnam’s IT industry has undergone rapid updates to catch up with global development though there remains a major shortage of high-skilled domestic personnel," the report said.

Companies are doing well in retaining staff, with a VietnamWorks survey of 2,000 IT employees showing less than 10 percent are not satisfied with their current welfare status.

Most respondents, or 78 percent, receive an annual 13th month bonus, while a third get Lunar New Year holiday (Tet) bonuses. Equivalents are given out based on performance or by project.

The average employee stays with a company 4.5 years. When they leave, the most popular reason is pursuit of a higher salary, according to 89 percent of respondents, followed by a better chance for promotion (67 percent) and better welfare (66 percent).

Technology, information and communications enterprises recorded VND3.1 quadrillion ($134 billion) in revenue for 2019, up 8.8 percent year-on-year, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Vietnam last year had about 50,000 information and communications technology (ICT) businesses, which the government wants to double by 2030 to add the country to the list of top 30 players in the sector.