"There are jobs for everyone," said Neil Russell, operations director of Bangkok-based job placement agency Manpower. "Problems are graduates with certificates have zero experience but expect the salaries of someone with 4-5 years' experience. They should be prepared to be flexible, taking jobs in small companies and waiting to advance. There are always better opportunities."

His comment is giving some hopes to job seekers, who have been treated with a series of bad news under the murky political condition.

The University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC)'s recent survey showed that the industrial sector's revenue is projected to slump by 34 per cent in the second quarter this year, due to negative factors including rising oil prices, political instability and an economic downwards trend expected to trigger an unemployment problem. Although no reports of immediate job cuts have emerged so far, some workers are likely to be laid off in the next few months if the oil price keeps climbing. The situation would be hard for about 700,000 students who are expected to complete bachelor's degrees and vocational degrees and enter the labour market this year, the UTCC said. About 300,000 are completing bachelor's degrees and who are considered unskilled labour.

In light of declining sales and poor consumer sentiments, companies are expected to stall their investment projects and could lay off workers. But job placement agencies are still witnessing growth rate in the number of companies that are searching for the right persons for their jobs.

"Amid this situation, major companies are still searching for new employees to replace the retired. For example, Kasikornbank recently announced the plan to recruit 2,000 new employees," said  Satinee Mokaves, managing director of Jobs DB Recruitment (Thailand) Ltd - operator of JobsDB.com.

Despite the poor economic health which prompted many houses to revise down economic growth rate, Satinee is not worried about the status of the employed as companies still do want to keep experienced employees. Though, she is worried about new university graduates as it is clear that the demand for the new graduates at many companies has been decreasing against the increasing number of new graduates.

"Even medium-sized companies are more willing to recruit experienced employees rather than the newly graduated. But there are certain companies that still seek for new graduates. Many of them are large-sized companies which still visit universities to shop for the best graduates and recruit them on sites."

She said those who graduated in general fields like BBA and social work and social welfare would find big difficulty unless they possess English skills. On the other hand, those who graduated in specific careers such as information technology or hotel-related fields would have no problem because companies still needs people to help develop their businesses.

Chuladej Machimanond, marketing supervisor of Nationejobs.com, also witnessed a sharp growth in business.

Nationejobs.com targets companies that seek for specialists such as those in information technology and marketing field.

"Our target companies are still searching for people that fit their specific requirements," he said, adding that due to the consistent demand, the website now caters its services to approximately 600 companies per month this year, compared to about 400 companies in January last year.

Manpower, which is specialised in recruiting for manufacturing sector, also witnessed a demand for new recruits. "There's growing demand as there is no significant slowdown in operations. There is growth, though the growth is not as fast as we expected. The economy is growing at 3.8-4.3 per cent. Though the rate is low compared with 10.4 per cent of China or other countries around, many countries like Europe would be happy if their economies are expanding at this rate," Russell said.

JobsDB.com also witnessed a robust growth. The number of companies seeking new recruits via the website has not declining despite political and economic circumstances. It has 15,000 companies in its database, of which 10,000 keeps using its web site to search for employees.

"Political situation is just the only factor that lead people to the worry about employment rate," Satinee said, adding that corporate employers actually have their budgets to seek for new employees but they prefer to wait until the political dust is settled.

Chuladej agreed. He said the number of jobs on offer has been declining, he said. Employment growth rate in the first quarter of this year grew by a few percentage points against the usual 10 per cent rate. The rate is low as the employed do not want to change their jobs at this moment while companies also try to keep their current workforce.

"The job market is still good as forward-looking companies are still searching for new recruits but they are cautious at searching for the specialised, regardless of what degree they are holding," Russell noted.

As such, new graduates with knowledge in IT, engineering and finance would be the first to find jobs, but most Thai students finished schools without skills. "These graduates need to apply themselves to their bosses' requirements - what they are expected to deliver. They must be far more proactive as companies' expectation is return on investment," Russell noted.

Satinee also noted that competition among companies also force them to be more selective. In the past, when companies found it more difficult to find the right men, they recruited new people and train them on the jobs. Sadly, it turned out that many employees could not adapt themselves to the job requirements. Right now, they are focusing on seeking the right men to the jobs.

For new graduates to find jobs, Chuladej suggested they make quicker decision amid this economic uncertainty, taking whatever on offer, and keep their eyes open for the new channels to find jobs.

To Satinee, companies should not hold back on their recruitment due to political instability as this comes and goes in Thai history. But she admitted that this should have an effect on multi-national companies as the instability might encourage them to consider moving their investment to other emerging economies such as Vietnam.

Russell agreed. He said politics is a short-term problem here. Thailand's job market could get fiercer in the future if Thailand could not solve several bottlenecks that limit corporate organisations' real potential.

"Longer-term challenge lies with what neighbours have to offer. If they want IT skills, investors can go to India; for cheap labour, go to China; for tax breaks, Malaysia is more attractive while Vietnam is on the horizon. These problems would pose real threats on employment in the years ahead."

Achara Deboonme

Nitida Aswanipont

The Nation