by LAM LE
Recruiters are wooing new workers with bonuses and gifts.
- Vietnam is the preferred location for tech manufacturers diversifying from China.
- As Apple suppliers expand production in Vietnam, competition for workers has intensified.
- Recruiters solicit prospective workers on TikTok, promising cash rewards and free accommodation.
For Apple suppliers in Vietnam, the end of summer is recruitment season. In the months ahead of the busy holiday shopping rush, companies like Luxshare and Foxconn try to fill thousands of permanent and temporary assembly jobs, building products like AirPods and iPads. Competition for these jobs was once fierce. But in the past couple of years, as more manufacturers relocate from China to Vietnam, the benefit of choice has shifted to the workers.
“There are more factories competing for the same pool of workers, and so many have had to increase perks and find ways to attract workers,” Tong Diep Anh, marketing director at Viec 3 Mien, a recruitment company for Apple manufacturers, told Rest of World. “In the past, when demand for work was high, workers had to pay money to get a job. Now that the job market is saturated, workers have a choice.”
On TikTok and Facebook, manufacturers and their recruiters try to attract the attention of potential workers by posting videos and hosting daily livestreams about the jobs they offer. Some promise monthly wages of up to 12 million dong ($492), plus sign-on bonuses.
“Did you come on your own or through a referral?” a recruitment host asks a job candidate at Foxconn, in a video posted on TikTok.
“On my own,” the worker says. “Okay, the company will award you 500,000 dong,” the host replies, adding that the bonus of about $20 is valid for everyone who applies in the next two months. “Brothers and sisters, friends who refer a worker will also be awarded 500,000 dong.” Vuong Van Hung, a security guard at Luxshare, gives his TikTok viewers a tour of the sports and gaming facilities at his workplace. TikTok/@vuongvanhung99
Just last year, a slump in Vietnam’s electronics manufacturing put tens of thousands of workers out of a job. The second quarter of 2024, however, saw the sharpest increase in orders for Vietnamese manufacturers in more than a decade, according to data from S&P Global.
“Now that these laborers, especially the younger generations, have had other jobs, it is not easy to get them back to work in factories with simple and rather boring tasks and long working hours,” David Yuen-Tung Chan, a researcher at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, told Rest of World over email. “They have a better idea about how to select factories. That could be a good signal for the industry to care more about decent work practices so as to attract workers.”
Vietnam is the most popular location for tech manufacturers wishing to diversify away from China to avoid U.S. tariffs. The country registered large foreign direct investment in new projects and expansion in the fields of semiconductors, energy, component manufacturing, and electronics in the first eight months of this year, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
Apple suppliers and their vendors have notably increased their presence in Vietnam, with Luxshare, Foxconn, and Goertek all opening up new factories. In 2015, Vietnam hosted just eight Apple suppliers; by 2023, the country had 35 suppliers assembling AirPods, iPads, and MacBooks.
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