Phuket Hotels Need More Than 6,500 Staff

Phuket hotels need more than 6,500 staff

PHUKET CITY: Phuket’s service industries – hotels in particular – have many job openings available, the head of Phuket Provincial Employment Service Office (PESO), Boonchock Maneechot, has revealed.

Speaking at a PESO-organized employment fair at the Thavorn Grand Plaza Hotel yesterday, he reported that the 216 companies represented at the fair had registered 6,504 vacancies.

K. Boonchock said that between January to August 2005, employers reported 12,000 positions vacant, at a time when 9,800 people were registered with the PESO as unemployed. About 2,800 of those have since found work.

He said of the remaining 7,000 people registered with the PESO some may actually have found a job, while the others may be unemployed or have not yet graduated.

Penchan Boonhok, chief of the PESO’s Employment Support Department, explained to the Gazette, “Only 200 of those who registered with us received unemployment benefits as of December last year. However, since then the number of jobless receiving benefits has risen to 3,100 – an increase of 1,550%.”

K. Boonchock concluded, “After the tsunami, many hotel employees found new jobs [in different sectors]. However, there is room once again for more hotel and tourism staff in the upcoming high season.”

At the fair, 35 businesses also set up indoor booths for potential entrepreneurs, with booths providing training in arts and crafts such as soap carving, batik production and Thai cuisine.

--Phuket Gazette 2005-09-06