To cushion the economic impact of Covid-19, the Social Security Office on Tuesday agreed to reduce financial contributions by both employees and employers into the Social Security Fund from 5% to 4% for six months.

Chak Phanchuphet, an adviser to the Labour Minister, said the measure will run from the end of this month to the end of August.

He also said the Labour Ministry has set up a centre to help companies threatened with closure because of the outbreak's impact.

They may, for example, be given the option of paying staff only 75% of their wages in return for giving staff more flexible hours.

However, there are no signs of companies closing or laying off workers yet, Mr Chak said.

As for workers who had returned from virus-hit countries and completed their 14-day quarantine, the Labour Ministry will check their rights to state benefits under a fund set up to help Thai workers in other countries.

Workers who are members of the fund are entitled to 15,000 baht in compensation if they are forced to return to Thailand to escape officially declared epidemics, unrest or natural disasters in the countries where they work, Mr Chak said.

For those who want to find work, the Department of Employment currently has 66,000 job vacancies listed, including for engineers, salespersons, production workers, and several other occupations, Mr Chak said.

The Department of Skill Development is also preparing to launch job-skill training for another 20,000 self-employed workers, having already provided the service to 100,000 self-employed people.