Vietnamese businesses are expressing growing demand for mid-level and senior staff even though the economy has not yet fully recovered and production continues to face challenging conditions, reports thanhniennews.com.

Job board, VietnamWorks said the number of job postings on its website increased by +23% between January and June compared to the same period of last year. According to the company’s Employment Indicators Report for H1 2014, senior staff in sales, IT & software, and marketing a most in demand.

Experienced team leaders, supervisors, managers and directors are increasingly sought after. Demand for graduates, however, continues to decline.

Jonah Levey, Chairman of VietnamWorks, said: “Recruitment demand has shown very positive signs recently. Companies are still in need of a lot of human resources, and the recruitment market continues to see a lot of activities similar to the second half of 2013.”

However, due to the limited supply of mid-level and senior staff it is increasingly difficult to recruit suitable candidates.

Nguyen Thi Van Anh, Managing Director of recruitment firm Navigos Search, said the shortage of necessary skills for Vietnamese labourers is much more serious than those of other Southeast Asian countries; such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand: "The shortage of engineers and managers can be seen in most sectors in Vietnam. Local engineers haven't done enough to stay up to date on the latest knowledge, information and technology, and they also lack foreign language skills and creativity.”