Thailand Faces Economic Strain: Mass Layoffs in Key Industries

[snoop1130]

 

In a troubling turn for Thailand's economy, mass layoffs have hit the industrial sector hard, with approximately 2,600 workers losing their jobs in just two days. The financial pressures have compelled companies to shrink operations, resulting in widespread disruption for employees.

 

In Chachoengsao, an electric vehicle manufacturer announced the layoff of 600 workers, effective December 1st. The company cited a dip in orders and rising costs as reasons for the decision, vowing to meet legal compensation obligations. The announcement, shared by the Noom-sao Rongngan Facebook page, underscores how the current economic climate has driven such tough choices.

 

Meanwhile, a jewellery factory in Samut Prakan has also revealed plans to cut 2,000 jobs by the start of next year, reflecting broader issues within Thailand's manufacturing sector. Reports on this trend highlight an economic recovery in limbo, as evidenced by a rise in managerial and executive job seekers amid lukewarm industrial demand in early 2024.

 

Further compounding the concern, the Federation of Thai Industries reported over 360 factory closures in the year's first half, displacing more than 10,000 workers and revealing a threatening economic landscape.

 

As Thailand seeks solutions to its industrial challenges, stabilising the economy and protecting jobs remain priorities. The severity of the current situation calls for immediate and strategic action, ensuring the livelihoods of countless citizens are safeguarded moving forward.

 

File photo for reference only

 

-- 2024-11-01

 

 

[Tropicalevo]

Sadly, this happens when the dinosaurs in charge refuse to leave the trough.

More mega projects awarded to the politician's sponsors.

No money in the tin so they take the money from the projects that invest in the people.

Then borrow more.

Many, many businesses are struggling because ordinary folk have no spare cash to spend.

As for the 10k for the favoured few - peanuts at an all you can eat buffet.

[CallumWK]

20 minutes ago, Tropicalevo said:

Many, many businesses are struggling because ordinary folk have no spare cash to spend.

 

I only have to look at the car parking at big c extra to know which part of the month we are

[spidermike007]

The economy here has been in trouble for years. 9 years of Jurassic rule by Prayuth was devastating. And the effects are still being felt. Foreign investment is declining for a dozen good reasons. Foreign companies cannot count on the revolving door administrations. Manufacturing, exports, real estate, and other industries are down, and the goons in PT don't have a clue. In addition, China continues to unfairly sponsor industries for exports, and this creates great hardship for many local industries, like the Thai steel industry, which has taken a huge hit. With China it is a one way street. Ever tried to sell an item and send it to China? Nearly impossible. All imports are govt. controlled. It is all about exporting anything and everything they can and very selective importing. A highly controlled market with thousands of companies getting govt. subsidies. They don't believe in a level playing field, nor playing fair. 

 

Lastly, the tourism sector has been declining in quality. The arrival numbers might be decent, but they are not spending like in the past. The economic troubles here are only going to continue. 

Edited November 1 by spidermike007

[hotchilli]

10 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

In a troubling turn for Thailand's economy, mass layoffs have hit the industrial sector hard, with approximately 2,600 workers losing their jobs in just two days. The financial pressures have compelled companies to shrink operations, resulting in widespread disruption for employees.

Thaksin has a master plan I'm sure.

[hotchilli]

26 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

The economy here has been in trouble for years. 9 years of Jurassic rule by Prayuth was devastating. And the effects are still being felt. Foreign investment is declining for a dozen good reasons. Foreign companies cannot count on the revolving door administrations. Manufacturing, exports, real estate, and other industries are down, and the goons in PT don't have a clue. In addition, China continues to unfairly sponsor industries for exports, and this creates great hardship for many local industries, like the Thai steel industry, which has taken a huge hit. With China it is a one way street. Ever tried to sell an item and send it to China? Nearly impossible. All imports are govt. controlled. It is all about exporting anything and everything they can and very selective importing. A highly controlled market with thousands of companies getting govt. subsidies. They don't believe in a level playing field, nor playing fair. 

 

Lastly, the tourism sector has been declining in quality. The arrival numbers might be decent, but they are not spending like in the past. The economic troubles here are only going to continue. 

MFP was the answer... but they got dissolved.. 

[Henryford]

Never seems to affect the Baht though.

[soalbundy]

7 hours ago, Tropicalevo said:

Sadly, this happens when the dinosaurs in charge refuse to leave the trough.

More mega projects awarded to the politician's sponsors.

No money in the tin so they take the money from the projects that invest in the people.

Then borrow more.

Many, many businesses are struggling because ordinary folk have no spare cash to spend.

As for the 10k for the favoured few - peanuts at an all you can eat buffet.

The recession is world wide, from Alaska to Sydney and everything in between, the 'robust economy' in the US has been shown to be false while China and Europe are in deep trouble, why do you think Thailand would be spared?

[Presnock]

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

The economy here has been in trouble for years. 9 years of Jurassic rule by Prayuth was devastating. And the effects are still being felt. Foreign investment is declining for a dozen good reasons. Foreign companies cannot count on the revolving door administrations. Manufacturing, exports, real estate, and other industries are down, and the goons in PT don't have a clue. In addition, China continues to unfairly sponsor industries for exports, and this creates great hardship for many local industries, like the Thai steel industry, which has taken a huge hit. With China it is a one way street. Ever tried to sell an item and send it to China? Nearly impossible. All imports are govt. controlled. It is all about exporting anything and everything they can and very selective importing. A highly controlled market with thousands of companies getting govt. subsidies. They don't believe in a level playing field, nor playing fair. 

 

Lastly, the tourism sector has been declining in quality. The arrival numbers might be decent, but they are not spending like in the past. The economic troubles here are only going to continue. 

Yeah, we have seen the Chinese version of "free trade" for a long time, noting how it is almost always a one way street, from Chinese factories to the rest of the world.  Yet, immediately, Thai leaders continue to strive to become members of BRICS, thinking that it just opens up the markets of the other countries.  If anyone here thinks that Russia, China, India, Saudi, etc will open their markets fully to Thailand - dream on.  Those countries are only looking for more votes against the traditional Western countries.  I will admit that many of the western countries have done their fair share of taking from the poorer countries  for a long time.  But, I still believe that the western countries treat weaker countries a lot better than many of the BRICS leaders.  IMHO having read much about all these issues for over 70 years.

[Suua]

55 minutes ago, Henryford said:

Never seems to affect the Baht though.

Have a read of 'Chartchai Parasuks' latest article in the BKK post

[mfd101]

11 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The severity of the current situation calls for immediate and strategic action,

In this country, immediate action (usually for show only) is one thing. Strategic action is an unknown concept.

[sammieuk1]

1 hour ago, Henryford said:

Never seems to affect the Baht though.

Yep' never including coups, election results overturned, industrial scale corruption,and cronyism to name but a few  🤔 

[jcmj]

And TAT are still pushing their citizens to travel. It’s time they wake up and start to understand what is going on. 

[john donson]

adapt or die

 

cannot wait to see the exodus if expats here are actually taxed on world wide income with NOTHING in return

[Bday Prang]

yet they feel the need to grant 500,000 migrant workers citizenship as they are essential to the workforce.?  Surely that number should now be reduced accordingly ?

[Bday Prang]

3 hours ago, mfd101 said:

In this country, immediate action (usually for show only) is one thing. Strategic action is an unknown concept.

And requires or  consists solely  of forming committees 

[OneZero]

4 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

In addition, China continues to unfairly sponsor industries for exports, and this creates great hardship for many local industries, like the Thai steel industry, which has taken a huge hit. With China it is a one way street. Ever tried to sell an item and send it to China? Nearly impossible. All imports are govt. controlled. It is all about exporting anything and everything they can and very selective importing. A highly controlled market with thousands of companies getting govt. subsidies. They don't believe in a level playing field, nor playing fair. 

 The Thai government should use its limited resources to put Thais to work on infrastructure projects that will contribute to future direct foreign investment.  Yet their military folks have convinced the gov't to still consider purchase of a CCP submarine (an extremely expensive life cycle operational proposition). Some Navy bigwigs want to feel important without any hint of a deep water strategic need.  The sad thing is the long-term strategic political & military implications (CCP blackmail).

 

Yet, the apparently blind Thai Minister of Defense, Phumtham, stated that the diplomatic relationship with China was a good reason to purchase the damn thing.  What nonsense.  Thailand will be dependent upon PRC submarine model specific Doctrine, Organization, Training, Logistics and Materiel upgrades, & thus subject to CCP unreliability /blackmail.  Undoubtedly there will be PRC advisors in Thailand for these functions and they will be doing their CCP required intelligence gathering while here.

[spidermike007]

5 hours ago, hotchilli said:

MFP was the answer... but they got dissolved.. 

An intelligent man, a real businessman with a track record, a young man with progressive ideas to move Thailand into the future. You are right, that would have been the answer, however that was the exact opposite of what the elite and some of the extremely toxic powers that pull the levers seem to want for the nation. 

[spidermike007]

50 minutes ago, OneZero said:

 The Thai government should use its limited resources to put Thais to work on infrastructure projects that will contribute to future direct foreign investment.  Yet their military folks have convinced the gov't to still consider purchase of a CCP submarine (an extremely expensive life cycle operational proposition). Some Navy bigwigs want to feel important without any hint of a deep water strategic need.  The sad thing is the long-term strategic political & military implications (CCP blackmail).

 

Yet, the apparently blind Thai Minister of Defense, Phumtham, stated that the diplomatic relationship with China was a good reason to purchase the damn thing.  What nonsense.  Thailand will be dependent upon PRC submarine model specific Doctrine, Organization, Training, Logistics and Materiel upgrades, & thus subject to CCP unreliability /blackmail.  Undoubtedly there will be PRC advisors in Thailand for these functions and they will be doing their CCP required intelligence gathering while here.

The entire defense department and establishment in Thailand seems to be not only completely useless and unproductive, but an enormous drain on the treasury. They're a spectacularly corrupt group of power hungry creeps. 

[AndreasHG]

5 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

The economy here has been in trouble for years. 9 years of Jurassic rule by Prayuth was devastating...

 Add an appreciating Thai baht and the zero import duties on BEVs from China and the recipe for disaster is completed.

 

[OneZero]

16 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

The entire defense department and establishment in Thailand seems to be not only completely useless and unproductive, but an enormous drain on the treasury. They're a spectacularly corrupt group of power hungry creeps. 

On AN there are the never-ending accusations of brown bag-patronage-corruption co-dependencies in Thailand, & despite being accusations they have legitimate basis in fact.  I recently watched a video interview with Erik Prince where he claimed direct observation-discussion with CCP military officials providing him evidence of CCP appropriations of money for brown-bag payoffs to foreign military officials willing to do CCP bidding.  

[shackleton]

The Thai government seem more concerned about Tourists the blood life line of Thailand 🤑

Most stories are about the Tourist industry than others 

The normal working person does not count 

End of 😱 💰 

[Presnock]

7 hours ago, Presnock said:

Yeah, we have seen the Chinese version of "free trade" for a long time, noting how it is almost always a one way street, from Chinese factories to the rest of the world.  Yet, immediately, Thai leaders continue to strive to become members of BRICS, thinking that it just opens up the markets of the other countries.  If anyone here thinks that Russia, China, India, Saudi, etc will open their markets fully to Thailand - dream on.  Those countries are only looking for more votes against the traditional Western countries.  I will admit that many of the western countries have done their fair share of taking from the poorer countries  for a long time.  But, I still believe that the western countries treat weaker countries a lot better than many of the BRICS leaders.  IMHO having read much about all these issues for over 70 years.

Yeah, life goes on in Thailand - now today even here, we read how Thailand is chomping at the bit to get in the trade bed with Russia! and they are reportedly thinking about the import and export of agricultural goods.  If they think that Russia will gladly take all that they have to offer, my personal feeling is that Russia is smiling at another country that will be taking their oversupply of everything.  But, I wish only the best for Thailand, as I have read the propaganda on Russia and Chinese communists for as many years as I have been able to read.

[Presnock]

On 11/2/2024 at 8:19 AM, john donson said:

adapt or die

 

cannot wait to see the exodus if expats here are actually taxed on world wide income with NOTHING in return

The article that I read indicated that they were unsure of what they might offer once they decide on the next tax scheme so maybe they will provide something in return for the taxes they collect.  good luck

[MartinBangkok]

On 11/2/2024 at 9:19 AM, john donson said:

adapt or die

 

cannot wait to see the exodus if expats here are actually taxed on world wide income with NOTHING in return

I already did. Just settled in in the most expat friendly country in ASEAN. And they all (90%) speak English.

Will return to Thailand soon, just to sell my stuff, including an expensive car and big bike.

I should have done this 10 years ago! Thailand can ... in .... as far as I am concerned, considering how western expats are treated.

It's a great feeling kicking xenophobic Thailand out of my life. A new and much nicer adventure has just started. Recommended!

 

 

[UWEB]

2 hours ago, MartinBangkok said:

I already did. Just settled in in the most expat friendly country in ASEAN. And they all (90%) speak English.

Will return to Thailand soon, just to sell my stuff, including an expensive car and big bike.

I should have done this 10 years ago! Thailand can ... in .... as far as I am concerned, considering how western expats are treated.

It's a great feeling kicking xenophobic Thailand out of my life. A new and much nicer adventure has just started. Recommended!

 

 

And where is it?