Of the 25,000 positions Ho Chi Minh City needs to fill in June, 35% require manual labourers and 65% skilled workers with training at vocational schools, colleges or universities.

The HCM City Centre for Human Resource Forecast and Labour Information said that most jobs needing trained workers were in the fields of IT, electronics, electricity, food technology, textiles-garments, services and construction.

In May, the centre conducted a survey of 1,852 enterprises, which showed a need for more than 7,100 employees. Trained workers made up 70% of recruitment needs, an increase of nearly 20% compared to April. Architecture-construction, IT consulting and customer care saw an increased demand.

Many positions required fluency in English, Korean or Japanese, as well as professional knowledge and skills.

Tran Anh Tuan, the centre's deputy head, said that enterprises in the textile-garment field faced a shortage of trained human resources.

The ASEAN Economic Community, which will take effect by the year-end with the aim create a single market, with freer flow of capital, services, products and skilled workers across borders , will speed the growth of many fields in the country, including the textile and garment sector, he added. It is estimated that 20,500 employees will be needed each year after 2015.