Dim prospects for employment recovery in latter half
The impact of Covid-19 continues to wreak havoc among businesses, with job recruitment firms facing a sharp drop in client lists amid dim prospects for an employment recovery in the second half of 2020.
Manpower Group Thailand is among the firms bearing the heavy brunt after losing 60% of its 400-500 clients during the first six months due to travel restrictions, especially on air travel, caused by the pandemic, said Wanchai Priboonbaramee, senior business operations director.
His company sees an unpleasant trend in Thai employment among white- and blue-collar workers.
“Many companies laid off their staff and reduced working days,” Mr Wanchai said. “It’s a difficult time for the job recruitment business in Thailand.”
A subsidiary of US-based Manpower, the company entered the job recruitment market in 1998, providing services for a range of careers from banking and finance to information technology and engineering.
This year, Manpower expects no revenue growth due to the coronavirus crisis.
“Both foreign and local job placement firms are suffering from the spread of the virus,” Mr Wanchai said, adding that the impact shows no sign of abating.
Though many countries have eased lockdown measures, allowing business activity to resume, travel has been strictly limited because governments still need to curb transmission between countries.
“A number of prospective employees in executive positions cannot travel [to Thailand] for interviews, but human resources personnel want to talk with them face to face,” Mr Wanchai said.
Manpower Group Thailand reckons that job recruitment is unlikely to recover in the second half of the year because of the difficulty in predicting whether another coronavirus outbreak will occur.
Things should be better next year, the company said.
Meanwhile, employment looks set to slow down in almost every segment as firms seek to cut operating costs.
According to Manpower, oil companies will likely trim their workforce after the combined effects of the pandemic and the April oil price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia.