The report said the best industries for job seekers are retail and wholesale (up 85 per cent).—Photo baodongnai

HCM CITY (Biz Hub)— Recruitment website VietnamWorks, announces an incredible 85 per cent spike in job listings in the retail and wholesale sector in its latest report.

This is a key finding in VietnamWorks's second Online Employment Report for 2013, as the spike in job listings is in stark contrast to the country's most stagnant retail sales growth rate since 2004.

"While the general word-around-town has retail truly suffering, this has not been reflected in our data for the quarter where we saw job listings almost double in the period," said Jonah Levey, founder and chairman of VietnamWorks.

"Overall we saw a robust increase of 14 per cent in online employment demand in the second quarter of 2013 compared to the same quarter last year," he said.

"As Viet Nam's sluggish economic development has recently accelerated during the second quarter, our Q2 numbers follow the increasing trend from Q1 and hopefully solidifies the growth foundations for the rest of 2013," he added.

Other important findings in report show Da Nang as the best city in the nation to find a job in the next quarter, ahead of Binh Duong and Ha Noi.

Bac Ninh also repeated a huge increase in online labour demand (53 per cent) where several large investments saw a spike in demand, followed by Da Nang (34 per cent) and Binh Duong (31 per cent). These are increases in Q2, up from Q1.

"The government's new investment policies in Da Nang have generated a notably positive effect on confidence and foreign investors have quickly picked up the welcome move. Going forward, the job market and talent pools at Da Nang will benefit from the Government's commitment to invest heavily in its infrastructure," Levey said.

The policies will also help attract foreign industrial and ICT giants, he added.

The report said the best industries for job seekers are retail and wholesale (up 85 per cent), pharmaceutical and biotech (up 35 per cent), insurance (up 27 per cent), customer service (up 25 per cent) and consulting (up 24 per cent). Meanwhile, oil and gas, banking, civil construction, architecture and interior design, and human resources did not fare as well, reporting declines of 23 per cent, 10 per cent, 4 per cent, 2 per cent and 2 per cent respectively.

These industries also fared poorly in the first quarter.

In a similar finding to the Q1 study, customer service, accounting and finance, production and process saw the biggest increase in number of applications, whereas architecture, human resources and banking got the most notable decrease in Q2 labor supply.

As the banking sector is coping with economic difficulties by cutting staff, it has not only witnessed a strong decline in job postings but also the biggest decrease in job seekers, Levey said. —VNS