The government is committing itself to ensuring safer workplaces for workers after it ratified an International Labour Organisation (ILO) convention on occupational safety.

The state wants to address work safety concerns by bringing national legislation up to ILO standards, so it ratified the treaty on March 23, permanent secretary for labour Puntrik Smiti said.

Thailand also intends to upgrade domestic work safety regulations to meet international best practices, the ministry said.

"This is the 16th ILO convention Thailand has ratified," she said, referring to convention No 187 titled "Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006".

Last month, after being granted approval from the cabinet, authorities declared their intent to ratify the convention before ILO chief Guy Ryder at the organisation's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

The ratified convention will take effect in 12 months, ML Puntrik said recently.

Meanwhile, the Department of Employment is working with job placement companies to prepare 39,984 vacancies for students who will graduate from universities and vocational schools this term.

If they are not too picky, they are likely to get jobs, said department chief Arak Phrommani.

The top five sectors with several thousand jobs for prospective workers are manufacturing, which has declared it wants 17,218 new employees, followed by retail and motorcycle repair (9,401), food and service (2,900), administration (1,607) and construction (1,491), according to the department.

Employers now mostly want graduates from vocational schools, Mr Arak said.