Apple's partner factories in Vietnam hunt for high-quality workforce

Electronic component manufacturing factories, including Foxconn, New Wing Interconnect Technology and Luxshare-ICT, are looking to hire 3,000-5,000 workers each, according to the northern province's job center.

Manual workers make up over half of the province's hiring demands, while skilled workers or those who have already undergone training make up 40%.

Foxconn, a provider of electronic components for Apple, said it would look for over 300 high-quality workers for management and engineering, besides the 5,000 manual workers it would hire. The salary levels for high-quality workers would not be publicized, but discussed during interviews.

Some other factories meanwhile require team leaders and other employees who know Chinese and have experience in electronics. To attract these workers, businesses often entice them with benefits like "Saturday afternoon off" or "opportunities to study and work abroad."

South Korean FDI businesses are meanwhile looking for office managers who have had working experience at Samsung factories, offering them a monthly salary of VND20-35 million ($785.62-1,374.84).

Interpreters of the Korean language need to have good communication skills or have worked abroad before. They're offered salaries at $600-900 a month. Manual workers should be under 40 years of age, and their salaries are at around VND9-12 million a month.

Nguyen Van Hue, director of the Bac Giang job center, said demands for skilled workers towards the end of the year would increase as many factories expanded production, especially for semiconductors.

The workers needed in this sector are university graduates with engineering degrees. As the demand for these workers is currently higher than supply, several factories are shifting to in-depth training for workers.

Over 8,000 workers in Bac Giang are working in the semiconductor sector, most are aged 18-35. 23% of them are managers and middle-level workers. This year, Bac Giang is expected to need 2,000 workers in the semiconductor sector, and demand will rise to 6,000 in 2030.

"Hiring high-quality workers is becoming a trend," Hue said, adding that whichever factory had better worker retention policies would have more high-quality workers.

Some companies even have deals with universities and colleges to secure a supply of graduates in relevant fields.

Bac Giang currently has around 7,600 active companies, with 306,000 workers. 80% of them are located in Bac Giang, while the rest come from outside the province.