The 2025 Salary Report by recruitment platform Joboko, based on nearly 582,000 job postings in Vietnam, highlights a firm trend in demand for languages, particularly Chinese.
Demand for workers speaking Chinese has grown at twice the rate for those speaking Japanese and 5.5 times in the case of Korean.
In 2025 there were nearly 13,000 new jobs requiring Chinese, up almost 50% from 2024 and 95% from 2023.
Demand for workers speaking other foreign languages grew by only around 20%.
Many candidates with Chinese proficiency are paid salaries comparable to senior-level employees even if they have limited work experience.
In manufacturing, engineering and some other sectors, salaries for Chinese-speaking candidates are 10-40% higher than for those in equivalent roles without the language requirement.
Workers with less than a year’s experience earn VND12-18 million per month if they have Chinese proficiency and VND8-12 million if they do not.
Technical staff proficient in Chinese earn VND15-26 million, about 1.5 times higher than average.
Pre-sales roles, positions involving technical support and solution consulting before sales, have income gaps of 50-120% if there are Chinese requirements with salaries at VND18-42 million and VND10-18 million.
In the engineering-manufacturing sector, Chinese-speaking quality control staff consistently top the salary charts regardless of experience.
In the case of workers with one to three years of experience the salaries are VND13-30 million and VND9-12 million.
This level is comparable to the compensation paid to electrical and mechanical engineers with over five years’ experience and 1.5-2 times the salaries paid for standard quality management roles of VND10-15 million.
A similar trend has gained traction in administration: office-HR roles.
Chinese-speaking assistants with less than a year’s experience get paid VND12-16 million, rising to VND13-17 million if they have one-three years’ experience.
These rank just below assistants to directors and CEOs, which typically require similar experience levels.
Recruitment concentrated in north
Recruitment for Chinese-speaking workers is mainly concentrated in northern Vietnam, where Chinese investments in manufacturing have increased rapidly.
After its merger with Bac Giang Province, Bac Ninh Province now has more than 26,000 enterprises, largely Chinese, Korean and Japanese, that employ over 820,000 workers.
In the first three months of 2026, factories in Bac Ninh, primarily in the electronics sector — such as Foxconn, Luxshare-ICT, Fukang Technology, and Goertek Vina — are expected to hire around 60,000 workers, including skilled technicians and general laborers.
Approximately 10,000 positions will require Chinese proficiency, mainly for operational roles and direct communication with management.
A woman learns Chinese online. Photo by Read/Hong Chieu |
Tran Van Quang, head of job consulting and employment forecasting at Bac Ninh Employment Service Center No. 1, said starting salaries for workers newly proficient in Chinese range from VND15 to 17 million, rise steadily with experience and remain significantly higher than average.
The high wages are due to the high standards required and burgeoning competition among companies for the same talent, he said.
After hiring graduates from technical institutions and foreign-language speakers, many companies send them to parent companies in China for further training in the language and professional skills, often with long-term employment commitments.
“In the coming years demand for this workforce segment will continue to rise, as most large investors in the area are Chinese enterprises,” he said.
The Joboko report notes that Chinese companies are willing to pay higher salaries to ensure smooth communication and operational efficiency as they expand in Vietnam, and expects this trend to continue for at least the next three years.
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