According to 200 responses from ITviec’s Employer Annual Survey, 2022 could be a great year for IT recruiting in Vietnam, with 91.8% of companies expanding IT team size and 80% raising the salary for their new IT hires. What about the year 2023? Would IT hiring growth continue to go in the same direction as it has for the past four years? How will the demand for IT skills and working policy be adjusted?

With this brief summary from the results of ITviec’s Employer Annual Survey 2023, you’ll be able to keep in mind some key takeaways of Vietnam’s IT recruiting trends from 2022, 2023 and some additional insights from 2020 to now.

#1. IT recruiting in Vietnam in 2022 has been very responsive to changes and has stayed positive in terms of actual hiring, salary increases, and adaptations in working policies.

In June 2022, big tech companies like Tesla (3,500 layoffs) and Byju’s (2,500 layoffs) were the first to start letting their employees go. By the end of June 2022, the total number of tech layoffs had reached 29,299 (Visual Capitalist, 2022), and the world had changed dramatically since then. In Vietnam, the situation might reflect a different state.

When we asked IT employers to reflect their Actual IT recruiting status in 2022, here are the main highlights they shared.

91.8% of the employers who responded have grown their IT teams, with 45.9% sharing that their IT teams have grown from 11% to 30%.

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Figure 1. Actual growth of IT team in 2022

Most companies (80%) raised salaries for new IT hires, with an 11% to 20% increase being the most common range (34.9%).

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Figure 2. Average salaries for new IT hires in 2022

From another perspective, IT employees in Vietnam seem to have a high level of flexibility at work. For example, 45% of the companies applied the “Hybrid” working method, where IT employees could work from home an average of 2.6 days per week. This ratio is also in line with what most employees around the world said about how many days of work from home they expected (Statista, 2022).

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Figure 3. Ratio of working models that were applied in 2022

#2. Increasing “No growth/Reduction” status for both IT team size and salaries for IT employees in 2023.

According to the results, it has brought us some surprise when nearly 19% of employers shared that they would plan for “No growth/Reduction” in their IT teams in 2023. In 2022, only 1.1% of companies chose this answer.

On the other hand, a large number of IT companies still plan to grow their IT teams in 2023. 81.5% of companies plan to grow their IT teams; in which, 31.7% plan to grow from 11% to 30%, and 19.2% will grow to more than 50%.

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Figure 4. Plan to grow IT team in 2023

The plan for salary changes in 2023 might also reflect a big shift in direction compared to 2022, when 44.6% of companies plan to “Stay about the same/Reduce” IT employee salaries. In 2022, this ratio was 10.9%.

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Figure 5. Plan for salary of IT employees from 2020 to 2023

#3. In 2023, top IT skills and positions with the most demand are highly similar to those in 2022.

JavaScript, Java, Node.JS, SQL, and C# are the top 5 skills that IT businesses want to recruit in 2023, according to the survey’s results. There is no major difference in demand between these skills, as the difference between each skill is approximately 1 to 1.4%. 

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Figure 6. Top IT skills that employers are looking for in 2023

If you are an IT firm looking to hire Back-end Developers in 2023, the competition is still intense. They are in high demand, just like Front-end, Full-Stack, and Mobile Developers. QA/QC position was also ranked highly, coming in fifth place. Quite similar to the results from 2022, with the top spots went to Back-end Developer, Front-end Developer, Full-stack Developer, Tester, Mobile Developer.

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Figure 7. Top IT positions that employers are looking for in 2023

In 2023, IT companies value problem-solving highly. We all know that outstanding problem-solving skills are vital in software and product development, where complicated issues arise daily. 

Other skills or values that IT companies look for the most in new hires are Agile/Scrum, English, Communication, and Collaboration. Good communication and collaboration in IT organizations help teams work together, create documents, and of course, solve problems faster.

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Figure 8. Top other skills that employers are looking for in 2023

#4. Salaries for IT employees and Leaders/Managers will mostly remain the same or reduce in 2023.

According to 44.6% of surveyed companies, IT employee salaries are expected to “stay about the same/reduce” in 2023, the highest percentage for this response since 2020 (Figure 5, Key takeaway #2). 

In 2023, 56.4% of the companies surveyed plan to keep or reduce the salaries for IT Leaders/Managers, which is about five times more than the ratio of this response in 2022 (10.9%). Taking into account the rising of global uncertainties, more companies may be rethinking their compensation strategies this year.

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Figure 9. Plan for salaries of IT Leaders/Managers from 2022 to 2023

#5. In 2023, “Fully in-person” and “Hybrid” working models share a fair proportion.

While 47.4% of the companies will continue to apply the “Fully in-person” working model in 2023, 46.2% of them plan to retain the “Hybrid” approach. The average number of days to work from home is 2.6.

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Figure 10. Plan for working model in 2023

There is no conclusive proof that one particular working model will guarantee the best productivity and connectedness across an entire team, especially in large organizations. Yet from a cross-channel perspective, IT candidates have recently shown most interest in the “Hybrid” working model, according to the results from ITviec Salary Report 2022-2023.

Given that there is an interesting ratio between interest and application of these working models, we anticipate to see more insightful highlights in the coming years.

With increasing global volatility and the evolution of high-tech applications, the best time to begin reaching out to Vietnam’s top IT candidates is always now. These insights are here for you to make the best strategy for job postings, job descriptions, and employer brands. Wait No More, Talk To Us now!