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After a pandemic-fueled unemployment freefall over the last year, costing 3 million people their jobs, the second quarter saw a big jump in employment demand for Thailand. Most job listings on internet search platforms 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, and the rise in employment demand is a “great sign of recovery in the Thai labour market.” Last April listings on internet job listing platforms 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. Second-quarter in 2021 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 which may see a prediction of 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 in the second quarter 2021, 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. 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 40,000 to 80,000 baht a month should attract job-hunters to the IT field. Contractors or temporary workers face salaries between 30,000 to 60,000 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 still ranks number 1 as the country most sought by foreigners working abroad, Thailand has climbed from 39th in 2018 to 35th at the start of this year.
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