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Study predicts bright year for Vietnamese employees
Vietnamese companies are the most optimistic in the world about hiring new staff members this year, a new study by Grant Thornton revealed.
Businesses in 29 of the 36 economies surveyed expected to hire more employees this year with Vietnamese companies being the most bullish on the issue, according to the report released Friday.
The study ranks economies based on a “percentage balance” between the number of firms expecting an increase in staff members and those expecting a decrease in 2010. Vietnam has the highest balance, of +60 percent, followed by Brazil at +59 percent.
“Vietnam proved to be fairly exceptional with 65 percent of respondents indicating that they had increased the number of employees in 2009 and 67 percent planning to increase salaries in line with inflation” said Matthew Lourey, Director of Corporate Finance in Grant Thornton Vietnam.
While emerging markets like Vietnam, India and the Philippines enjoyed some of the biggest increases in headcount during 2009, businesses in some of the world’s more mature economies suffered the greatest decreases in employee numbers, the survey of over 7,400 privately held businesses found.
“Employment typically lags behind other factors when countries emerge from recession,” said Ken Atkinson, Managing Partner of Grant Thornton Vietnam.
“While job losses have been harsh in some economies, one of the features of this global recession is that unemployment has not, so far, been as high as originally feared. It is typical of the adaptability of privately held businesses that they have strived to retain their staff during the year."
The report also shows how creative local businesses became as they tried to avoid compulsory redundancies of permanent staff amid the economic downturn.
“In Vietnam career breaks and reduced hours were the most common amongst the few respondents who had to take measures to avoid redundancies”, said Atkinson.
Vietnam has also been put on top in Asia for business confidence in a recent HSBC survey of small-to-midsized enterprises.
Thanh Nien
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