About 50,000 laid off in four months

In the first four months of this year, over 400 factories across Thailand have been closed, laying off some 50,000 workers, the permanent secretary for labour said yesterday.Citing the employment termination watch committee's report about the situation from January 1 to May 1, Somchai Chumrat said conditions were particularly hard in densely industrial provinces such as Samut Prakan that had seen 14,123 workers lose their jobs; Ayutthaya, 12,051; Pathum Thani, 10,829; and Bangkok, 9,009 laid off workers.

Electronic parts manufacturing closed the most factories - 110; followed by textiles, fashion accessories and shoes - 114; autoparts - 81; machine manufacturing - 48; and furniture - 81.

Reasons for lay-offs were mostly a loss of profits, a lack of liquidity, low orders, a contract/concession cancellation, organisational downsizing, and moving of a manufacturing base, he said.

Somchai said there were also 422 factories - employing 180,058 workers - on the verge of folding. The telling signs of distress included temporary closure, partial payments to workers, working hours cut, and material shortage.

Most of these at-risk factories were in the fields of electronic parts manufacturing, autoparts, machine making, furniture making and metal manufacturing, he said.