Thailand jobs listings rise in February, labour force recovering from pandemic

After a pandemic-fueled unemployment freefall over the last year, costing 3 million people their jobs, February saw a big jump in employment demand for Thailand. Most job listings on the search platform JobsDV are for positions in the sales and customer service fields, followed by positions in the information technology field.

Employment demand rose nearly 25% from the lowest periods in 2020, which were during the 2 Covid-19 outbreaks, according to JobsDB Thailand. They say that the rise in employment demand is a “great sign of recovery in the Thai labour market.”

Last April listings on job listing platform JobsDB fell from January 2020 figures 35.6% while the second coronavirus outbreak in December led to an even bigger drop of 45.5% from January, down 37.9% from numbers in August 2020.

February shows a strong upward trend though, particularly with people in the IT field. Barring another wave of Covid-19, employment levels are looking likely to recover by 2022 to levels before the pandemic decimated the economy. JobsDB is predicting 5% year-on-year growth for Thailand’s job market.

While sales, business development and customer service saw the biggest increase in new job listings in Thailand last month, IT and engineering has shown significant growth and is a hot market for new Thai employment. Last year marketing and public relations, transport and logistics, and manufacturing had the highest demand growth. But IT just saw a 10% growth in jobs to fill and the Thai labour market needs skilled workers for emerging digital technologies.

JobsDB suggests Thai people need to brush up on their IT skills and Thailand needs to attract skilled foreign workers to jobs as well. A shortage of skilled workers exists as new jobs are created in artificial intelligence, blockchain and crypto tech, data protection, and machine learning.

Starting salaries of 20,000 to 40,000 baht a month should attract job-hunters to the IT field. Contractors or temporary workers face salaries under 16,000 baht a month. Aside from IT, specifically skilled jobs like legal officers and business analysts pay similar wages, as well as jobs in the telecom field.

While Singapore ranks number 1 as the country most sought by foreigners working abroad, Thailand has climbed from 39th in 2018 to 35th last year.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post