IT has the highest demand growth rate for recruitment, rising 50 percent and 45 percent from pre-pandemic levels in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, respectively. Half of respondents said they would recruit completely new and inexperienced employees as they seek to optimize recruitment costs, with priorities for sales and IT candidates, said the survey, which polled over 400 employers and 1,200 jobseekers in August. The figures show a high demand for labor amid major shortages being reported in southern manufacturing facilities as workers leave major industrial localities like HCMC and Binh Duong for their hometowns, their cash depleted. More than 87 percent of jobseekers said they were affected by the pandemic. More than half of respondents have been tightening their spending. Nearly 52 percent of employees will switch to a new job when the Covid-19 situation is controlled./.