From Backfill to Expansion: How Vietnam's Hiring Priorities Are Changing in H2 2026

For much of the first half of 2026, hiring in Vietnam was largely about keeping teams whole — replacing people who left. Reeracoen's mid-year survey of 57 employers across Vietnam, conducted in May and June 2026, shows that this is changing. As the year moves into its second half, employers are shifting their stated hiring intent away from backfill and toward expansion. That shift sounds subtle, but it changes what "hiring" actually requires of a business — who you're hiring, how fast you need to move, and how much you need to pay to get them.

What the data shows

Among the 57 employers surveyed, backfill and vacancy replacement accounted for 34% of hiring activity in H1 2026 — the single largest reason companies were recruiting. Business expansion accounted for a smaller 21%. Looking ahead to H2, employers' stated intentions flip: expansion is expected to rise to 30% of hiring activity, while backfill drops to 21%. Meanwhile, the share of employers reporting no hiring activity at all edges up slightly, from 27% to 32%, suggesting that some employers are pausing rather than expanding — the market isn't uniformly heating up, it's becoming more selective about where it invests hiring effort.

These figures reflect the stated plans of 57 employers surveyed in May–June 2026. They point to a more selective H2 market in which the purpose of hiring is changing, rather than a uniform rise or fall in hiring across Vietnam.

Why replacement hiring and expansion hiring aren't the same job

It's tempting to treat "we're hiring" as a single category, but backfill and expansion hiring make very different demands on a business.

Backfill hiring is largely reactive. You know the role, you know roughly what "good" looks like because someone already did the job, and the main pressure is speed — filling the gap before it hurts productivity.

Expansion hiring is different in almost every respect. You're often defining a role that doesn't exist yet in its current form, competing for candidates who are in demand precisely because the market is short of them, and making a longer-term bet on where the business is heading. The same recruitment process that works well for backfill — post the job, screen against a template, move fast — tends to underperform for expansion roles, because there's no existing benchmark to screen against.

Recruitment channel usage is also changing. Among surveyed employers, planned agency usage rises from 51% in H1 to 61% in H2. For employers planning new or less familiar roles, specialist sourcing and market benchmarking are practical options to consider alongside internal recruitment channels.

What expansion hiring actually requires

If your hiring mix is moving toward expansion, three practical implications follow.

1. The candidate profile changes. Expansion roles more often require someone who can operate with less defined scope — someone comfortable building a function rather than stepping into an established one. Screening purely on "has done this exact job before" tends to filter out exactly the adaptable candidates expansion hiring needs.

2. Salary benchmarking becomes non-negotiable. The same H2 survey found that 73% of employers raised salaries in 2026, yet only 39% actively benchmark against market rates — half still price roles using internal policy alone. For backfill hiring, that gap is a mild inefficiency. For expansion hiring into new or scarce roles, pricing against last year's internal bands rather than the live market is a much more direct way to lose the candidate you actually want.

3. Timelines lengthen, and that has to be planned for. As a practical matter, expansion roles typically take longer to define, source and close well than backfill roles do — this is Reeracoen's recruitment-market observation rather than a figure the survey itself measures. Businesses that budget the same hiring timeline for an expansion hire as for a backfill hire tend to either rush the decision or lose strong candidates to faster-moving competitors.

A practical way to tell which type of hiring you're actually doing

It's easy to label every open requisition as "hiring," but a quick test helps separate the two categories before you build a process around the wrong one. Ask: could an internal transfer or a straightforward external hire, using last year's job description almost unchanged, realistically fill this role well? If yes, it is likely to be backfill, and a faster, more templated process may be appropriate. If the role is still being defined or the new hire is expected to help shape the scope, treat it as expansion hiring and plan a more deliberate search.

What this means for workforce planning

None of this means backfill hiring disappears — most businesses will always need to replace departing staff. But if your own hiring mix is following the broader pattern captured in this survey — more expansion, less pure replacement — a few adjustments are worth making before Q4 planning locks in:

• Separate your backfill and expansion requisitions in your own hiring plan, rather than treating "open roles" as one undifferentiated list. They need different timelines and different sourcing approaches.

• Revisit salary bands for expansion-type roles specifically, rather than assuming last year's backfill-hire salary still holds.

• Build in more lead time for expansion roles in your Q4/2027 planning, given they typically take longer to close well.

• If your internal recruitment team is stretched, this is precisely the type of hiring where a specialist recruitment partner earns its fee — sourcing and benchmarking expansion-type talent is a different skill from filling a known vacancy quickly.

The underlying message from the H2 2026 data isn't that hiring in Vietnam is simply "up" or "down." It's that the nature of hiring is changing, and businesses that adjust their process accordingly will be better placed to compete for the candidates expansion hiring actually requires.

FAQ

What is the difference between backfill hiring and expansion hiring?

Backfill hiring replaces someone who has left a role that already exists. Expansion hiring creates new headcount to support business growth, often for roles that are less clearly defined and harder to benchmark against an existing template.

Is hiring in Vietnam increasing overall in H2 2026?

Reeracoen's H2 2026 survey of 57 employers shows a shift in the type of hiring — more expansion, less backfill — rather than a uniform increase. The share of employers reporting no hiring activity also rose slightly, indicating a more selective market rather than broad-based growth.

Are more surveyed Vietnam employers planning to use recruitment agencies in H2 2026?

Yes. In Reeracoen's survey, planned agency usage rises from 51% in H1 to 61% in H2. This is a separate trend from the change in hiring purpose, but it shows that more surveyed employers expect agencies to form part of their H2 recruitment mix.

Do I need to change my salary bands for expansion roles?

It's worth checking. The same survey found 73% of employers raised salaries in 2026, but only 39% actively benchmark against the external market — a gap that carries more risk for expansion hiring into scarce or new roles than for straightforward backfill.

 

 

Related Articles

• The Mid-Level Talent Vacuum: Why Vietnam's Leadership Pipeline Is Breaking Down
• Vietnam Hiring in Q4 2026: 7 Workforce Priorities Employers Should Review Before Year-End
• Choosing the Right Recruitment Partner in Vietnam: A Practical Guide for Employers in 2026

About the Author

Valerie Ong

Regional Head of Marketing, Reeracoen Group

Valerie leads content and market insights for Reeracoen across Asia. She works closely with Reeracoen's specialist recruitment consultants to translate hiring data, salary benchmarks and labour market trends into practical guidance for Vietnam's employers and professionals. Her work draws on Reeracoen's proprietary hiring, employer and worker research, alongside recruitment-market insights from Reeracoen's specialist consultants.

Language note: This article is published in English. Reeracoen Vietnam also publishes selected content in Vietnamese and Japanese for our local professional community.

References

• Vietnam Worker Sentiment Study 2026. Reeracoen Vietnam Co., Ltd. n=254 workers, 1H 2026. Published July 2026.

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