Firms not upping head count

Most companies have stopped expanding their workforce and now only seek employees to fill vacancies for existing positions, while employees are tending to stick with their current employers, said JobsDB Recruitment (Thailand).

 The unfavourable economic situation is a major factor, said managing director Satinee Mokaves. Most companies only want to keep their current teamwork strong, rather than think about expanding their staff numbers.

Meanwhile, employees do not want to change jobs because they do not want to take a risk in a new workplace. In addition, their employers might offer them very attractive salaries and negotiate to keep their more skilful employees.

"Throughout the past two months, many job candidates who have good potential to fill job vacancies of our corporate clients have changed their minds at the last minute and continued working for their current employers rather than move to a new workplace," Satinee said.

She added that companies had invested heavily in training their staff and it takes time for employees to fully understand their working culture.

For companies seeking new employees, their expectations about applicants are higher than before. They strive for fast learners, people who quickly adapt to a new culture and who already have specific skills that serve specific jobs.

Satinee said people with no specific technical skills and newly graduated students from non-technical faculties, such as education and social sciences, would have more difficulty in finding jobs than those who graduated in engineering and information technology.

She suggested job seekers take the opportunity to learn technical skills.

"Companies today are different from before. They don't simply accept anyone, nor are they willing to take the time to train them," she said.

Corporate clients of the firm's JobsDB.com website, targeting medium-sized to large companies, continue to send requests to find new employees to fill vacancies, as they always want qualified personnel who really fit their needs. However, other corporate clients of its newly established ezyjob.com site have cut their spending for this channel, she added.

Meanwhile, more people, especially at the middle to low levels, have become more active in updating their resumes via the JobsDB online channel. It currently has 652,000 people using its service.