ManpowerGroup Thailand - Direction of Thailand's Labor Market in 2022 from Digital Disruption to Covid Disruption and Careers Demanded of the Year

Miss Lilly Ngamtrakulpanit, Country Manager, ManpowerGroup Thailand, reveals that during the past 2-3 years Thailand has faced significant challenges over the past years from Digital Disruption to COVID Disruption which affect life, work and business operation of business, industrial and labor sectors. All sectors are aware of and stay on guard. We see a slow recovery from the COVID-19 situation with better prospects, more widespread and comprehensive vaccine distribution coupled with re-opening of countries and various economic boosting measures of the public sector, recovery of global economy. Likewise, in terms of industry, there is an introduction of more technology and automation into work process. The demand for people in the labor market nowadays is more complex due to changes and adjustments of each organization in its operations and business activities in order to be in line with the situation and future work trends, resulting in the need for skills, especially new skills that meet the needs of today's work and new era employment. Every organization must focus on so that their employee can drive the organizations effectively and efficiently as targeted.

The direction of Labor Market and Labor tend to adapt to new business model (New Economy), and all sectors should plan their workforce, recruitment, and personnel development to meet the needs of present work towards the future and create success together in the midst of a changing world.

Amid the challenges of today's world of work including the economy, situation of COVID-19 outbreaks, transformation technology, demand for new labor skills, consumer behavior, and changing ways of working. This forces many organizations and workers must plan to cope with the world of work both at present and in the future, which keep changing all the time. In this regard, the direction of labor market can reflect the labor situation in many dimensions. It is beneficial for both employers and employees to establish their response plan to recruit workers or look for suitable jobs." Lilly Ngamtrakulpanit discloses her perspective.

Miss Suthida Kanjanakantikul, Marketing Manager, ManpowerGroup Thailand, points out that according to the result of ManpowerGroup Thailand's 2022 Survey, The Top 10 Job Fields Demanded by Employer are as follows: 1. Sales and Marketing (20.16%); 2. Production (19.03%); 3. Temporary & Contract Job (12.74%); 4. IT (11.29%); 5. Engineering (9.19%); 6. Accounting and Finance (8.71%); 7. Logistics and Supply Chain (7.10%); 8. Customer Service (5.48%); 9. Medical Service / Health (3.71%); and 10. Human Resources (2.26%), respectively.

However, it can be seen that Sales and Marketing jobs remain in high demand for 5 years in a row. From the impact of the COVID-19 situation, Sales and Marketing jobs play an important part in decision making. Moreover, consumer products and manufacturing are in high demand due to new product release plans. With technology transition and growing trend of exports, short-term jobs, both temporary and contract jobs, increasingly require workers as a result of reduction of personnel risk during COVID crisis. At the same time, hiring this group of workers helps maintaining business ability to operate continuously and efficiently. IT jobs are also growing in demand, which is in line with the direction of the age of digital disruption and covid disruption where IT equipment and technologies are widely used for work. Furthermore, since the spread of Covid, which requires people to keep social distancing, there have been many IT jobs and positions offered in the labor market. The demand for engineers is vary depending on the direction of production lines so that both work and production processes can continue uninterruptedly in different situations and for business goals of each organization can be achieved.

According to the result of a survey of The Top 10 Careers Demanded of the year conducted by ManpowerGroup Thailand (as shown in the table), Sales & Marketing: the most popular jobs include Sales, Business Development, Digital Marketing, E-Commerce and Marketing; for Production, the most popular jobs include Operator and Technician jobs; for Temporary & Contract Job, the most popular jobs include Production, Sales, IT, Engineers, Logistics, Customer Service and Construction; for IT, the most popular jobs include Programmer & Developer, Big Data, Project Management, IT - Technique, IT Infrastructure, IT Support, Blockchain, IT Management, Software Tester and Robotics; for Engineering, the most popular jobs include QC/QA, Manufacturing Engineer, Instrument Engineer, Project Engineer, R&D Engineer; for Accounting & Finance, the most popular jobs include Auditor and Consultant AX; for Logistics and Supply Chain, the most popular jobs include Merchandise Stocker, Delivery, Warehouse Management and Purchasing/Overseas Purchasing; for Customer Service, the most popular jobs include Call Center, Product Advisor, Customer Service, Telesales and Protection Consultant; for Medical Service / Health, the most popular jobs include Nurse, Physician, Pharmacist, Dentist, and Healthcare Service; for Human Resources, the most popular jobs include HR Planning (HRP), HR Recruiter, HR Compensation & Benefit, HR Development (HRD) and HR Information System (HRIS).

The trending jobs in short-term jobs, both contract and temporary work, include job positions that are in demand in a variety of fields. For Production, the most popular jobs include Production and Technician; for Sales, the most popular jobs include Sales and Event Staff; for IT, the most popular jobs include Programmer & Developer, IT Support, Project Management and Software Tester; for Engineering, the most popular jobs include QA/QC, System Engineer, Product Engineer and Civil Engineer, for Logistics and Supply Chain, the most popular jobs include Warehouse Management, Packing and Merchandise Stocker; for Customer Service, the most popular jobs include Cashier, Product Advisor and Phone Collector; and for Construction, the most popular jobs include Construction Worker.

Besides, three major business groups that are in high demand and outstanding include Service business in Transportation & Logistics, Health Care Services and Commerce sectors, Industrial's business in Automotive, Industrial Materials & Machinery, Petrochemicals & Chemicals sectors, and Technology business in Information & Communication, Electronic Components sectors, respectively. In this regard, for business trends and predictions for the year 2022, it will continue to be Service business, Technology and Industrial sectors based on economic trends both domestically and internationally which are in the recovery phase.

Regarding the job levels that are in high demand in the labor market, it is found that senior Management level is in high demand in Technology, Service and Consumer goods businesses; Middle Management level is in high demand is in Industrial goods, Service and Technology businesses; Operational level is in high demand in Service, Industrial and Consumer goods businesses. When taking a look at the overall direction, a demand for Operational level workforce is still found to be at the highest, followed by Middle management and Senior management, respectively. In the field of Service business, the demand for all level of workforce is high in the Transportation and Logistics, Medical and Commercial groups.

All in all, the demand for labor is likely to grow compared to the 1st phase of COVID outbreak in 2020. Organizations and entrepreneurs continue to invest in business operation and carry out activities in production sector continuously and according to their plans by having measures for safety and risk prevention such as through more implementation of Automation, Technology and Platform in the world of work. As regards the demand for labor among employers are mostly in Bangkok and provinces that are major cities in each region, such as Samut Prakan, Pathum Thani, Rayong, Chonburi, Ayutthaya, Chachoengsao, Chiang Mai, Nakhon Ratchasima and Songkhla, for example. Most employers have a demand for rotational workers in the country and in local area. At the same time, there is also a demand for workers to work abroad despite the conditions of COVID-19 situation.

The survey also reveals that Top 10 Job fields most sought after by the workforce are: 1. Sales and Marketing (27.26%); 2. Engineering (17.31%); 3. Customer Service (11.05%); 4. Accounting and Finance (7.39%); 5. IT (7.36%); 6. Logistics and Supply Chain (6.35%); 7. Human Resources (5.94%); 8. Administration (5.45%); 9. Production (4.34%); and 10. Temporary & Contract job (3.97%).

Moreover, the survey results shows that most workers are significantly interested in working in Bangkok and rotating to area in Thailand, especially to Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) such as Rayong, Chonburi and Chachoengsao Provinces. A survey on local entrepreneurs' opinions on how to deal with the situation and restore their business reveals that the entrepreneurs can handle the current situation and changes quite well.

With respect to the direction of job application is in line with the labor market with increasing demand for workers, which shows the awareness and adaptation of workers in preparing to enter the labor market and more introduction of various technologies in work. Today's workers are active to develop their skills by both reskilling and upskilling to support new ways of working, new jobs, new careers, new roles, and to use various technologies and platforms when working in order to meet their organization's needs.

In conclusion, there are various challenges, business and industrial sectors should establish response plan and seek additional opportunities for their organizations to be able to drive towards their goals. The labor market continues to have its demand and have both formal and informal workforce available to drive business and industry. Organizations should adapt to become more flexible and respond to situation quickly in order to overcome the uncertainty and complexity of this changing world. Organizations should anticipate impacts in various degrees and find appropriate ways to handle and make correction in responding to new ways of work and the situation that is tending to vary and difficult to predict. The key to respond to these challenges is the readiness of personnel and organizations in terms of health and safety, collaboration, and corporate culture, and most importantly, the implementation of suitable technology and automation in the organizations to create good experience for both employees, customers and business partners. If organizations and workers are able to keep up with the situation and adapt quickly to change, it will help create opportunities for success.

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