Severe labour shortage problem for Foxconn Vietnam

Foxconn has opened 2 new manufacturing facilities in Vietnam this year - in the northern region of Bac Giang. However, the EMS-giant was only able to fill 3'000 positions of the 5'000 needed for its assembly lines. "This is a big issue for Foxconn. The company reported that it was facing difficulties in recruiting workers here", Do Quoc Tuan, deputy director of Bac Giang Department of Planning and Investment, told local media. However, Foxconn seems not the only foreign investor in Vietnam with this particular problem. Companies in the southern province Dong Nai are looking for 30'000 workers; the Ho Chi Minh City Export Processing and Industrial Zones Authority is looking for 20'000 workers. Vietnam has enough workers to fill all vacant position, media reports suggest and point to the low wages as a major factor. Monthly average wage for workers at foreign-invested enterprises (FIE) stands at VND 2 million (around EUR 74). Foxconn currently pays around EUR 56 at their facility in Bac Giang. Korea’s Samsung Electronics however was able to recruit almost 8'000 new staff its mobile phone factory in the Bac Ninh province and plans to increase this number significantly by 2015. Average monthly wages abount to around EUR 112. “We do not face labour shortages”, said a Samsung executive at Bac Ninh is cited in an article from VietNamNet.