Young workers prioritize income and development opportunities

Struggling with income and promotion opportunities

In fact, the labor market in Can Tho City is not short of jobs, but income, living expenses and career development opportunities are making a part of young workers consider carefully before long-term attachment.

Mr. Le Hoang Nhut (23 years old, worker in Tra Noc Industrial Park) said that although his job is relatively stable, promotion opportunities are quite limited if he lacks qualifications. His income also depends heavily on overtime, if he only works office hours, his salary is just enough to cover living expenses.

Excluding rent, food and living expenses that are increasingly escalating in the city, the income received does not meet the needs if I do not work overtime. Therefore, after 2 years of attachment, I decided to resign to find another job that is more suitable" - Mr. Nhut shared.

For skilled workers, the pressure comes from the lack of a clear career path and disproportionate remuneration. Ms. Tran Le Thuy Anh (26 years old, Can Tho City), a university graduate in international business, transferred to 3 companies in less than a year to find a suitable position.

Some companies, although recruiting according to their expertise, have benefits that are just enough to meet basic living standards, and lack a specific career advancement roadmap. After working for a while, I found the job repetitive, with little change, so it was easy to get bored. I decided to quit to find a new environment that truly assesses my abilities and has a clearer development direction" - Ms. Thuy Anh confided.

From finding stable jobs to choosing a place to stick with

According to experts, young workers' continuous job changes should not be simply seen as a manifestation of "work craving". This may be a change in career expectations when young people are more interested in income, working environment and development opportunities.

Mr. Nguyen Quang Huy - Executive Director of the Faculty of Finance - Banking, Nguyen Trai University - said that it is necessary to look at the problem of young workers in Can Tho not simply as a shortage of labor or "lack of work", but as a change in job expectations in the process of economic restructuring.

A part of young people are shifting from the mindset of "finding a stable job" to "choosing a job worth sticking to". The trend of freelance work, short-term contracts and project-based work also poses new requirements for businesses" - Mr. Huy assessed.

Faced with that reality, if businesses maintain a management model that focuses on presence time, less empowerment, less training and lacks a career path, the risk of personnel fluctuations will increase, leading to recruitment and training costs and limiting the ability to accumulate skills of workers.

According to the Can Tho City Employment Service Center, recruitment demand in the last months of 2026 is forecast to continue to be positive thanks to stable FDI flows, digital transformation and business expansion in key industries. Meanwhile, the city's high-quality human resource supply is still limited, especially in technical, semiconductor, automation and senior management positions.

In that context, the Center reminds workers to proactively improve their professional capacity, digital skills and adaptability to seize future job opportunities.

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