by Djoann Fal

The most severe crisis since the second world war.

“The most severe crisis since the second world war: Employment losses are rising rapidly around the world.” Guy Rider, International Labour Organization director.

While many of us may be fortunate enough to actually be enjoying the quarantine – with food delivery & Netflix – for the first time in our modern history, more than 125m people worldwide have lost their jobs and are being put under tremendous stress, in many cases not being able to pay the rent or buy food.

Families affected by unemployment following lockdown measures to halt the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus line up for food donations at Wat Bowonniwetwiharn in Bangkok on Wednesday. (AFP photo)

The Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry, and Banking has predicted that 7 million people will be jobless in Thailand by June. The dire prediction came from the chairman of the JSCCIB, Supant Mongkolsuthree.

“Thailand’s labor market currently employs about 38 million workers and the JSCCIB is still assessing the outbreak’s impact on employment in the automotive and electronics sectors, as well as at department stores.” Supant Mongkolsuthree.

More than 27 million people have applied for government cash handouts of 5,000 baht a month since the scheme was introduced on March 28th. The first round of payments was sent to 1.6 million people from April 8th to 10th, with the second round of payments expected Monday and Tuesday for 600,000 more people.

Supporting with what we have: work from home jobs

At GetLinks, we’ve been thinking about how we can contribute to society during these times. As recruitment experts in Thailand, we are in a strong position to support job seekers, and by harnessing the power of our network and platform we want to educate & inspire thousands of people about the possibilities of Remote Work.

In the month of May, GetLinks will open its recruitment platform to be completely FREE for companies to post jobs and for talents to interview with these companies.

While it’s currently not possible to work at shopping malls or restaurants, most of us have a phone or a computer. We can use these to work from home and make online incomes. We aim to gather as many remote jobs – as well as full-time, part-time and freelance jobs – as possible to support 10,000 unemployed Thai’s to find a job and receive income for the coming months.

Spread the message

This Labor Day, to kick-off our month-long Remote Job Festival 2020 we’re launching a #WorkFromHomeChallenge. You can show your support to the millions of unemployed Thai’s by participating in a few simple steps:

1. Take a fun picture or video showing how you dress, look, or act when working from home VS. working at the office

2. Start your caption with #WorkFromHomeChallenge and then choose your team, are you:
#IVoteForWFH – prefer working from home
or
#IVoteForWFO – prefer working from the office

3. Let us know why you chose your answer, for example:

“I feel more productive working from home, and there’s no commuting time!”

4. Finish the caption & copy/paste the text below to help spread the word.
———————–
Let’s raise awareness about remote work opportunities to support Thailand’s unemployed. Copy & paste this part and tag your friends to share it.
#WorkFromHomeChallenge
#RemoteJobFest2020
#saveคนตกงาน

5. Tag your friends to see their responses

Let’s see how far this online human support chain can go!
On this Labor day, stay positive & share your compassion for those who don’t have this chance.

Sincerely
The GetLinks team