The Adecco Group Thailand, a world-leading full-service HR agency, has announced the annual Salary Guide 2021 which reveals the salary rates of various career fields from over 3,000 leading companies which are Adecco’s customers. This year, it has been discovered that the careers with the highest starting salaries for new graduates are IT positions, which reflects the need of staff to push forward businesses on the digital platform.
Overview of Office Workers’ Salary Rates in Thailand
IT Offers Highest Salaries for New Graduates: Max. Starting Salary of 60,000 Baht
Based on the information from the employment through Adecco in the past year, it has been discovered that white-collar fresh graduates’ salary ranges from 12,000 Baht to 60,000 Baht. The career field with the highest-paid is IT due to the strong labor market demand. Its monthly salary rates range from 18,000 to 60,000 Baht, an increase from the previous year with the maximum salary of 40,000 Baht.
The best-paying occupation for new graduates this year is “software engineer” with the highest salary of 60,000 Baht, depending on the graduates’ skills and experience as well as the salary rate of each company. This career’s salary ranges from 20,000 to 60,000 Baht. In most cases, fresh graduates who earn a high salary have work experience working as a freelancer or participating in a start-up business since they were undergraduates. Also, they should be equipped with specialized programming skills or proficient in programming in multiple languages. Their English communication skills must also be good/ excellent since they have to work in a multinational company.
The second most well-paid jobs are data scientist and data engineer whose salaries are between 30,000 - 50,000 Baht due to the current big data usage trend. Companies are in need of staff who can help them design the methods to store and run data as well as to analyze information, test the hypotheses, and draw a conclusion to benefit their business in various activities, e.g., the creation of promotions, customer retention, and product development. Therefore, these two occupations are highly sought-after in the market and have relatively high salary rates compared to those of other jobs.
Specialists to Enjoy High Salary - Experts in Specialized Fields Stand a Chance of Making Hundreds of Thousands of Baht
Adecco’s database survey in the previous year has also revealed another interesting information that there are many specialized careers with high salary rates. For staff in several job positions, if they are equipped with great abilities and experience, their salary can reach hundreds of thousands of Baht even though they are not managers or executives. These positions include financial controller, legal consultant, research & development specialist, and company secretary. Some organizations offer such positions the maximum salary of 250,000 Baht per month.
High-Demand Careers in 2021
In accordance with the data analysis based on the hiring demand of organizational customers in the previous year and a survey with Adecco’s recruitment consultants and business managers, we have found the trending careers with high demand from the market and a tendency to grow next year as follows:
IT & Digital Field: This year, the technological and digital labor market still grows continuously and takes the smallest impact from Covid-19. Several companies still focus on increasing workforce in the fields of programming, system design and development, and big data analysis. The positions with high demand include data engineer, data analytic, data science, DevOps engineer, and solution architect.
Engineering & Technical Field: Overall, the engineering field still lacks sales representatives and management-level employees with technical expertise and long experience who can manage teams and solve problems on- site. Much-needed positions in this field are sales engineer, technical sales manager, production manager, and project manager.
Finance Field: Even though some tasks in this field are being replaced by AI, many organizations still require executives and specialists to help analyze data and plan financial strategies for them, especially during the economic crisis resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. Highly desired positions are finance & accounting manager (CPD/CPA), finance manager (CPD/CPA), and financial controller.
Sales & Marketing Field: Regarding the sales and marketing labor demand trend this year, it still focuses on increasing the workforce with skills and expertise in order to penetrate the digital market and generate sales through online channels. The in-demand positions include digital manager, sales manager, and brand manager.
Japanese Speaking Field: As for jobs that require Japanese language skills, Japanese companies are still constantly looking for potential staff with work skills and Japanese-language proficiency to add to their organization in the fields of sales, administration and secretary, as well as engineering.
Industrial Positions: Despite the fact that the main industries in Thailand take quite a big hit from Covid-19, companies are still searching for staff to fill up some positions to reinforce their teams. The positions currently in demand are in both the administrative and engineering fields, i.e., accounting & finance manager in the production and factory field, sales/ service engineers in the fields of engineering, procurement and construction (EPC), petrochemical, energy, and automatic control systems, as well as quality & production engineer.
Labor Market Is Fragile and Highly Competitive, Says Adecco Executive
“In the past year, Thailand was affected by Covid-19 which caused an economic contraction, and it has been speculated that it would take at least 2 years for the economy to recover. Even if the current economy has improved to some extent, such recovery is limited to some businesses only and has not yet expanded to every income group. Thus, the labor market in 2020 and 2021 is highly fragile due to the uncertainty of Covid-19 which may spread again and take its toll on the economy at any time. For this reason, most companies and entrepreneurs are still tightening their belts and delaying new employments. Some companies may adjust their organizational structures, reduce the number of full-time staff, and hire part-time employees instead,” said Ms. Tidarat Kanchanawat, CEO of the Adecco Group (Thailand).
“Meanwhile, the job application trend in 2021 will become increasingly competitive due to the higher number of unemployed people. Candidates must continuously improve themselves, especially new, unemployed graduates who must not let time pass by fruitlessly. Instead, they should acquire more knowledge and experience to develop the skills that companies are looking for. In order to get a job these days, candidates must be equipped with hard skills which are the knowledge and abilities related to such job. They must be ready to work immediately after being hired since businesses nowadays use speed to compete with each other. As for soft skills or social skills, they remain the essential qualities that companies are looking for in candidates, including collaboration skill, adaptability, emotional intelligence, creativity, and learning agility. Besides, if candidates possess a wide range of skills, they will gain a competitive advantage because, due to the current work trend, employees will be responsible for more diverse tasks and their roles may be adjusted in line with the changing situations. Therefore, companies need employees with these qualities to increase flexibility and agility in their operations.”
About Adecco Salary Guide
Published annually since 2014, the Adecco Group Thailand’s salary guide gathers the salary information and salary rates of its clients from more than 3,000 leading companies in various industries. It covers sales and marketing positions, IT and digital positions, engineering and technical positions, industrial positions, Japanese-speaking positions, and general administrative positions, encompassing employees at operational, middle-management, and executive levels. The objective of the guide is to assist organizations in planning for appropriate salary structures and compensation while providing candidates with information that will help them in the job application process. Companies and candidates can check the salary rates online and download a full document at adecco.co.th.
