Salaries record highest rise in five years

This is from the September 13, 2008 edition of The Saigon Times

Navigos Group, the leading recruiting and integrated human resource solutions provider in Vietnam, has released preliminary results of it Vietnam Salary Survery 2008 showing the average salaries this year have grown 19.5%, a five-year high.

The growth in salaries is much higher then in 2006 and 2007 when Vietnam's economy was rapidly growing but salaries increased by only 9% and 12.6% respectively.

The survey identifies that a number of companies have revised up salaries two to three times within a year to help their employees cope with high inflation and to retain them.

It results were based on the analysis of data gathered from more than 180 companies representing 15 major industries from April 2007 to March 2008. The tracked industries include manufacturing, finance, information technology, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), construction and engineering, hospitality and tourism, pharmaceutical, and chemical.

Navigos Group will organize a seminar on "How Competitive is Your Compensation Strategy?" for participants to discuss relevant issues, current trends and analysis from the final salary survey on September 23 in HCM City and September 25 in Hanoi.

Last month, the marketing and research firm TNS Vietnam released the Consumer Trends 2008 findings, showing that up to 95% of the consumers in Vietnam have been impacted by inflation but only one-third of them have seen their salaries rise. Ralf Matthaes, managing director of TNS Vietnam, said that the percentage of higher salary beneficiaries remained low but was understandable as most companies did salary reviews at the end or beginning of each year.