Service sector suffering skills shortage
PHUKET CITY: Phuket is facing a recruitment crisis, with a shortage of workers who have the experience and foreign language skills required by the island’s service sector, the head of the Phuket Provincial Labour Protection and Welfare Office, Patom Phetmanee, warned yesterday.
Speaking at Phuket City Hall, K. Patom said, “There is a great need for labor, especially in the hotel sector.”
He called for better co-ordination between employers and educational institutions, saying, “We need to send students for training in the workplace during the last semester before they graduate.
“Then the workplaces would have a supply of ‘quality labour’, because the students wouldn’t be totally inexperienced when they entered the labour market.”
Phuket Vice Governor Winai Buapradit said there was a year-round need for labour. “Demand is not necessarily seasonal,” he said. “The tourism industry here is expanding, and so is the need for labour.”
K. Patom also revealed that the minimum wage in Phuket may be increased by three baht to 171 baht per day. The increase would first have to be approved by the Ministry of Labour.
