Nov. 2--Job seekers may be feeling a little more hopeful these days as companies in many fields are starting to hire again amid signs of rising orders and an upturn in the Thai economy, say recruitment agencies and human resources consulting firms.

But the country is not completely out of the woods yet as many companies are still waiting to see a true recovery before moving forward at full steam. Employers are still cautious about new hiring. As a result, temporary or contract jobs are now in favour as they provide flexibility for both employees and employers.

One key indicator of the reviving workforce market is the employee turnover rate. The rise in voluntary turnover reflects opportunities in the market as people have started searching for better jobs than the ones they have. A recent survey by Hewitt Associates of 153 companies in Thailand shows a voluntary turnover rate of 9.3 percent, compared with 7.8 percent in 2008.

Surendran Ramanathan, head of Hewitt's Rewards Centre for Southeast Asia, said 75 percent of respondents cited better external opportunities as the reason for higher voluntary turnover. This indicates that companies have started hiring across many industries, especially those that have high voluntary turnover rates. The secondary reason was limited growth opportunities (42 percent) followed by further studies (39 percent).

As companies in Thailand prepare for the upturn, they have to constantly balance the need for growth versus managing costs. The Hewitt study, however, indicates that while layoffs were more prevalent in 2008, moving forward in 2010 it sees "strategic hiring" as the main measure to manage the workforce as 63 percent of companies indicate the same. In addition, 58 percent of companies indicate that they plan to continue with a "headcount freeze" while 45 percent will continue a "hiring freeze".

"This shows that the market for hiring has opened up and more job opportunities are there in the market as more than half of respondents are now hiring openly or hiring strategically," Mr Ramanathan said.

Wanna Assavakarint, Kelly Services' senior director and Thailand general manager, said positive signs were detected since the second quarter when demand started to pick up with the reactivation of many shelved recruitment projects.

"Unfortunately, as we moved further into the third quarter, we observed that the demand momentum had started to plateau, reflecting that the uptrend will probably be a gradual process as opposed to a sharp V curve," she said.