Labour demand increased 10.8% year-on-year during the first nine months of this year, with the travel sector registering the highest growth in job recruitment as the segment rebounds following the pandemic, says online recruitment firm JobThai.
IT skills remain among the top three skills most sought by employers, along with language and software skills.
Sangduan Tangthamsatid, co-founder and chief operating officer of JobThai, said from January to September the company announced 1.74 million positions, increasing 10.8% from the corresponding period last year.
The sectors recording the highest employment were travel at 76% and hotels at 39% as they bounced back from the pandemic after mass layoffs, followed by the energy sector at 39%.
The top five sectors seeking staff include food and beverage with 167,261 positions, retail at 137,421, automotive at 119,609, construction and construction materials at 108,491, and services at 106,143.
The top five positions most in demand include sales jobs at 21.4%, followed by technician jobs 9.37%, production/quality control jobs 7.09%, administrative/procurement jobs 6.26% and engineering jobs 5.87%, based on the cumulative monthly job openings for applications.
The top five positions with the most applications were production/quality control jobs at 16.0%, followed by administrative/procurement jobs at 14.1%, engineering jobs 11.0%, technician jobs 9.20%, and sales jobs 8.54%.
According to the survey, the categories with the highest competition are human resources, with a ratio of 5.8 applicants per position, science at 5.5 applicants per position, import/export at 5.5 applicants per position, procurement/administration/coordination with four applicants per position, and environmental/safety at 3.8 applicants per position.
Among the top three requirements sought by employers are language skills, mainly in Mandarin, followed by English and Japanese.
Another requirement is familiarity with computer languages and the latest programming tools.
Employers are also looking for familiarity with software and productivity tools such as system applications and products, enterprise resource planning and TikTok.
On JobThai, job-seekers aged 25-34 accounted for 30% of users, those age 45 and older tallied 25%, age 35-44 totalled 23%, and those 18-24 amounted to 21%.
In terms of education level, users with a bachelor's degree accounted for nearly 70%, followed by those with vocational training at 14% and users with a master's degree 4%.