Unveiled at a two-day symposium, which wrapped up on Tuesday (October 1), the BOT report also referred to the National Statistical Office’s survey of working conditions and the Social Security Office’s data on employment, which showed that in the past 30 years, 60 per cent of workers in Thailand were in the agricultural sector. However, these numbers have dropped by 30 per cent, while employees in the manufacturing, trade and service sectors has been rising. The BOT study also found that though highly skilled and educated persons could earn fat paycheques previously, this was no longer true due to a lack of top positions and different skills required nowadays. Therefore, there is only a very limited group of people who can secure high salaries based on their education and skills.

Hence, the symposium was told that the private sector and government must realise this problem and to overcome it, universities must start having their students apprentice at the private sector and big companies should hold skill-training sessions for their employees.

The study also found that though the new generation is better educated and lives longer, their employment period is shorter at 55 to 60 years, while the average lifespan of Thais is 67 years.

The factors that urge early retirement in Thailand are an earlier retirement age and the release of pensions at an earlier age. For instance, employees of private companies can start receiving their pension from the age of 55, while government employees at 60. Also, highly paid and highly skilled workers choose to retire when they turn 55.

The government, however, is trying to get people to extend their working life by offering tax benefits after retirement age.