Thailand Unemployment At 1%

[tijnebijn]

If it is really low like this,why in earth do they restrict so many jobs from foreigners?It just blows my mind,there is almost nothing that I can do for a likable work in Thailand,being a teacher or working in a office is just not my working style,it is just like this I know,but with such low unemployment makes me think.......This is Thailand again i guess.

[onlooker]

In Thailand anyone undertaking any type of work no matter what and for how long is counted as being employed in the official figures. So if you just feed chickens for 20 minutes a day on your parents farm you're working. In - but here tey are.most countries someone with a paper round would be considered as being fully employed

[Levent]

Surprisingly no one mentioned another phenomenon found here - hidden unemployment. That is, five people doing the job only one could easily do. I am not saying that they should fire the other four people, as it is a way of earning an income for them, but sooner or later these people will lose their jobs as employment costs rise and automation sets in - or, in other words, as Thailand becomes more Westernised.

[think_too_mut]

In Thailand anyone undertaking any type of work no matter what and for how long is counted as being employed in the official figures. So if you just feed chickens for 20 minutes a day on your parents farm you're working. In - but here tey are.most countries someone with a paper round would be considered as being fully employed

But, that person is not looking for work with government agencies nor receiving any benefits (as they don't exist in Thai), so why would that person be counted?

Also, overemployment in the shops - 70% of staff could be doing nothing but they are also not looking for work and sit and watch the world go by at 6000B per month.

I'm wondering, if, by a miracle, unemployment benefit was introduced at, say 3000B per month, how high would the 1% figure jump? 30%? 60?

Most of those now "employed" would flood in, claiming it while keeping what today labels them as "employed".

South Africa has some system in place (not sure what it is and how far from western expectations) and that may explain the highest unemployment rate, which could be, in fact far lower that what Thailand would have had if there was the dole to claim.

Edited April 13, 2007 by think_too_mut

[mpdkorat]

How do they calculate this figure. They have no way of doing it as far as I can see. It can only be a guess, accurate or not.

[aussiestyle1983]

I highly doubt the accuracy of that figure. It's proably made up to make someone or the country gain face.

Were all the ladies of the night taken into account in this figure (prostitution was illegale here I thought, so it would not be correct to use illegally employed hookers to lower the countrys' un-employment figure)

And, if hookers were taken into account in this figure, immagine how much the figure would rise if all the red light areas were closed down, Thailand would go from having the best to the worst un-employment level in the world!

[xbusman]

For almost seventy years the workers paradise in the Soviet Socialist Republic reported an unemployment rate of either 0% or something very close to that. In some regards, it was possibly or arguable true. Without any accounting standards, statistical sampling or perspective, these numbers are worthless. We can look around our immediate vicinity and realize that the employment rate is less relative to this economy and society than various astrological and numerological projections.

[think_too_mut]

I highly doubt the accuracy of that figure. It's proably made up to make someone or the country gain face.

You may doubt but the figure has changed to 1.6% in the latest The Economist. So, some new information has arrived from somewhere.

Were all the ladies of the night taken into account in this figure (prostitution was illegale here I thought, so it would not be correct to use illegally employed hookers to lower the countrys' un-employment figure)

And, if hookers were taken into account in this figure, immagine how much the figure would rise if all the red light areas were closed down, Thailand would go from having the best to the worst un-employment level in the world!

Ladies (that you call hookers) are actually employed with their bars for salaries of 6-8K baht per month or 3-4K for beerbars. What they get from you when you barfine them it's not the bar's business.

And for salaries so low (6-8K) there is no tax.

[gummy]

The CIA world fact book shows 2.1% estimated unemployment for Thailand for 2006.

Did they not also say Iraq had WMD ?

[samran]

Read this excellent article by Ross Gittins, economics writer in the Sydney Morning Herald. Sets out the issues in plain English, and you will be able to see the parallels with Thailand. Statistician Must Lift Game on Job Figures

[RasiMike]

Yes, yes Thailand is indeed on the road to improvement.....

.1. Unemployment - setting world records...... obviously.

.2. The strength of the Baht - truely better than ever.....jump on board and invest my friend.

.3. Racism - no no and never.

.4. Democracy - highly over rated......... we tried one that didn't work.

[Old Man River]

The Economist is reporting unemployment in Thailand at 1%. That would make it the lowest in the world, the closest being Singapore at 2.6% I was wondering where the figure comes from as, to my knowledge, there are no unemployment benefits or agency in LOS that could tally the unemployed. The Economist can be sometimes controversial, which is one of its excellent features, and there is the occasional typo, however this number has been reported in 3 issues in a row.

Any thoughs out there?

It wasn't all that long ago that there were two studies on the unemployment rate done simultaneously. One was from the government, the other funded by one of the opposition parties. The results were markedly different. Answers from the village headman depended on what the "right" answer was supposed to be.

[A_Traveller]

Without resulting to Disraeli's truism, here a link to the most recent Economic Review published by the Bangkok Post, with a breakdown of employment figures.

Regards

Economic Review

/edit URL //

Edited April 19, 2007 by A_Traveller

[think_too_mut]

Without resulting to Disraeli's truism, here a link to the most recent Economic Review published by the Bangkok Post, with a breakdown of employment figures.

Regards

Economic Review

/edit URL //

And it came up with 1.7% unemployment.

[JR Texas]

Without resulting to Disraeli's truism, here a link to the most recent Economic Review published by the Bangkok Post, with a breakdown of employment figures.

Regards

Economic Review

/edit URL //

And it came up with 1.7% unemployment.

JR Texas: The 1% unemployment figure is totally misleading. As others have already pointed out, underemployment is more important. Still, we need to create full employment. So, here is how to do it. Half of the workforce will be Hole Diggers. The other half will be Hole Fillers. The "fillers" will pay the "diggers" 50 cents per day to dig holes in the ground. The diggers will dig all day. The diggers will then pay the fillers 50 cents per day to fill up the holes with dirt. The fillers will fill up all those holes in the ground. Now we have 100 percent employment. Great! Economic problems go away.......ha ha ha.

1% my ass...........

[Francis Maube]

As suggested by our Tokyo friend I did contact the Economist and quite suprisingly did get and answer, here the the copy and paste:

The rate is published in the monthly Internaional Financial Statistics

of the IMF.

the IFS says they say they come from the ILO. The ILO website reports

that they are from the Labout Force Survey

conducted by the National Statistical Office of Thailand.

Regards, Stella Jones

I let you make up your mind on the grammar. The answer was written on the 17th of April, was the 16th Easter Holiday in the UK? If so it was a log weekend and poor Stella sound like she was suffering from a nasty hangover.

Back to the point, the number come from a Thai government agency. 1% unemployment being such a nice number, why bother making the effort to check it out, the office is nice and cool whenever I show up and there is a TV to watch the soap inbetween appointment for my private business.... rings a bell?

[Mid]

JR Texas: The 1% unemployment figure is totally misleading. As others have already pointed out, underemployment is more important. Still, we need to create full employment. So, here is how to do it. Half of the workforce will be Hole Diggers. The other half will be Hole Fillers. The "fillers" will pay the "diggers" 50 cents per day to dig holes in the ground. The diggers will dig all day. The diggers will then pay the fillers 50 cents per day to fill up the holes with dirt. The fillers will fill up all those holes in the ground. Now we have 100 percent employment. Great! Economic problems go away.......ha ha ha.

1% my ass...........

now Sir ,

if thyne aren't cautious ,

beware of the wroth of the rose coloured glasses .........................

[bingobongo]

this will do wonders for unemployment.....

Thailand to weigh new foreign business ownership rules

"Many Japanese companies are very concerned about the new law," said Tetsuji Banno, head of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce. "If they don't understand it well, they may put new investment elsewhere."

Foreign investment applications in September 2006 through February 2007 dropped about 49 percent from a year earlier.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/04/22/news/baht.php