While employment demand has been up in Vietnam for the last months of 2014, many firms remain hesitant about hiring new university graduates, according to one study.

The site, Jobstreet.vn announced the results of 630 Vietnamese companies concerning the country’s human resource market in the third quarter of this year. The results showed that employment demand increased compared to the same period last year, evidence of economic improvement.

Of the companies surveyed, over 59% reported to have a higher human resources demand, while 78% plan to recruit new staff in the second half of this year. The figure is up 6% compared to the same period.

Hiring demand among employers increased in the third quarter to just over 63% from about 58% last year. But the hiring of new graduates fell by almost 8.9%.

Fresh university graduates lack required skills

According to the same survey, about 22% of university graduates questioned said they were paid between VND2 million and VND3 million, while around 29% reported having been paid between VND3 million and VND4 million. Only 18% were paid VND4 million to VND5 million.

Even with the low pay, employers were still hesitant to hire new graduates, as almost 44% of employers questioned said that young graduates lacked experience and the skills required for jobs.

In addition, 33% of surveyed enterprises worried about instability in young employees and said that they were not confident in the English skills of young employers.

The most surprising news, perhaps, was that a large minority of university graduates failed to find a job involving their major.