Thailand's Construction Industry Faces Labour Shortage

[dcutman]

Anybody remember that Thailand is a 3rd world country???

Some of you talk as if there was any sort of western development here.

[akspace]

I still have the opinion that construction workers are not paid well enough in Thailand. Back when I did construction the minimum wage in the US was $5 hour, I got paid between $20 - $40/hr depending on the job (so 4x-8x the minimum wage).

Meanwhile a laborer in Thailand is supposed to get by on minimum wage? In their situation I would turn down the work too, there are easier jobs you can do for that type of wage.

[fatman0757]

All this low wage business is rubbish I employ good tradesman and to keep them I have to pay 15,000 baht a month and more. Most of our work is in condos so you can only work an eight hour day and a five day week. If you are good you will get the money

Just out of curiosity how long have you been doing this and how many workers do you go through before you get a good one and what percentage of the good ones are Thai?

about 8 years and on the whole they are all good they just have to be closely supervised. The downside is we shut operations down if we have holidays lasting longer than four or five days

[asiawatcher]

Working and living in Thailand for seven years, I have had enough conversations with CEO's of companies that cannot find enough Thais to work in their factories. The pay is good (I am talking about the industries in Mantra for example) including the benefits. There is too much of a turn-over. So, when I hear the poor farmers in Isaan whine about not having enough income, I wonder why they do not move to where the jobs are???? This is what happened a couple generations ago in North America and Europe - farmers moved from the small farms to the cities to make a better living. I think the whole problem of getting Thai workers to stay and work 8-10 hours a day is a "cultural" thing. Many Thais don't want to work that long, they want their breaks, long lunches, and sanook. So hiring Cambodians, and Laos will continue. (True, the construction work does not pay enough and will continue to illegally hire Cambodians to do the laborous work.)

And that is why country girls come and work the bars. The get paid for what they give away for free in the village and they come to where the work is.

[chiangmaikelly]

Anybody remember that Thailand is a 3rd world country???

Some of you talk as if there was any sort of western development here.

Ya right

Edited October 25, 2012 by chiangmaikelly

[LeeKat]

Anybody remember that Thailand is a 3rd world country???

Some of you talk as if there was any sort of western development here.

You must be the only one here to remember that! Go whining somewhere else old chap!!!