BANGKOK, 2 May 2013 The latest street survey is showing that local labors are to quickly boost their skills and efficiency as competition appears to grow further around and outside Thailand.
Kasikorn Research Center (KResearch), on Wednesday, released the result of its latest study on the Thai labor market, which showed the 300-baht daily minimum wage policy has not posed any substantially negative impact on the labor market or the economy.
KResearch stated that the shortage of workers in certain sectors could have counterweighed the problem of employment termination as a result of the wage hike, while the business sector has been somewhat adjusted to cope with higher labor cost.
The survey also found that there has been a 1.2-percent rise in employment during the first two months of 2013; the finding that led to a conviction that the Thai economy could end up growing 4.8 percent this year, as forecast, if the positive trend in the labor market continues.
KResearch added that it should take more time before any clear effect of the new daily minimum wage becomes more evident although the problem of economic slowdown in some of Thailand’s trading partners, the baht fluctuation and the cost pressure may already be rattling several local industries.
In order to rein in the situation, the center has urged Thai labors to quickly improve themselves while the government should introduce measures to boost the quality of workers and achieve a balance between demand and supply of labor, in order to enable them to stronger and able to compete more efficiently with regional rivals.
KResearch has predicted that Thailand’s unemployment rate will perhaps increase slightly from 0.7 percent in 2012 to 0.8 percent this year.
