Launched to mark Her Majesty’s 84th birthday, the branches along with a section of the Department of Employment’s website (www.doe.go.th/elderly) will provide advice and information for elderly job seekers, Labour Minister General Sirichai Dithakul said.

The jobs on offer will be of two types – paying ones such as part-time, temporary, permanent or work-at-home positions and non-paying ones such as voluntary work, community service or jobs such as charity advisers and special lecturers, he said.

Since October until last month, as many as 420 elderly workers had contacted the Labour Ministry for jobs, and 373 had found employment in the 2016 fiscal year, the minister said. High-demand sectors included production, packaging, shop assistant and product demonstrator, Sirichai said.

He added that 23 leading companies, including Home Product Centre and Biz Resource with 403 positions, had interviewed elderly candidates.

Meanwhile, permanent secretary for Labour ML Boontharik Samiti said the ministry will sign an agreement in September with the Foundation of Thai Gerontology Research and Development Institute as well as 16 firms for a pilot project to promote the employment of senior citizens.

Meanwhile, three Thai agencies will study Japan’s system of managing elderly citizens. Boontharik said a representative of Japan’s Health Ministry, Tomoaki Katsuda, had recently met her to exchange experiences and offered to help to develop and support the employment of senior citizens in Thailand.

The Employment Department, Social Security Office and the Labour Ministry’s Permanent Secretary Office will study how Japan manages its elderly population in aspects such as employment, pension, social security and vocational skill training.

Japan has amended a law to extend the retirement age from 60 years old to allow them to continue working until the age of 65 in certain jobs and community work, while also adjusting the old-age pension system to provide sufficient sums for senior citizens’ families, she added.

The ministry and the Japanese Embassy will host a workshop for promoting the employment of elderly people on September 26, so Thai agencies can collaborate with their Japanese counterparts to achieve the goal, Boontharik said.

She added that the Wage Committee had also been given the job of studying the hourly rate for senior citizens while the Finance Ministry would implement measures to encourage companies to hire elderly people, such as offering further tax deductions and subsidies of Bt1,000-per-person for up to 10 per cent of total employees.