Thai unemployment rate almost reaches 500,000 in June 2014

[paymaster]

Perhaps a new occupation of "driver shaker" on buses and officially listing purse and gold chain snatchers as employed could help lower the rate and counter the tourism downturn.

[daveAustin]

Suthep has a lot to answer for....

Nice try but you can blame the person who came up with that stoopid wage rise before anyone else. The inevitable lay-offs and of course Thais not wanting labouring jobs. I shudder to think what the unemployment rate would be should there be a UK-style dole system here.

[konying]

That is interesting figures.

My business is still short staffed and getting /finding new staff at the moment is harder than same time last year.

All I see these days in shop fronts , dental clinics , gyms, hotels, restaurants is signs " looking for staff"

May be the 500 000 registered are looking for jobs which they do not qualify for or may be some are too lazy to work or stay in the same job for longer than a month

[Hawk]

I was at a Thai restaurant outside Bangkok with my Thai colleagues from work. They couldn't communicate with the staff. When I asked them, what's the problem? They said the staff cannot speak Thai, they are from Myanmar. Thai people don't want to work this job.

And you can't speak Thai and you work here?

[ginjag]

I have a degree so no way I am working at a 7/11 so I will remain at home lounging about (forever) until someone offers me an executive job with starting pay of 50,000 baht.

I have zero experience but I have a degree so that's all that matters.

With that degree they need big money to pay a company boss to get enrolled, that being the system, as of now it will slowly be stopped with high penalties.

You near need a degree to be a professional nose picker here, look in your news adds for vacancies, no matter what position a degree needed.

My idea here to get a job with a company--sit down and do my test for the job, if you pass there is no need for the degree.

Problem is what sort of super workforce do you get when most degrees are worthless, and you pay big money to the boss for the job?? no wonder Thais are falling by the wayside. My guess is most of the decent workers do not get the chance because ?? yes wealth and uni.,

[puck2]

Suthep has a lot to answer for....

..... and Yingluck/Taksin a lot more. Remember Yingluck's poll winning promises to lift "minimum wages".

Already at that time it has been said, lifting the minimum wages would hurt especially the SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) with the consequence of losing job places.

[spidermike007]

Wowwy, kazowy, almost 1% unemployment. While most of the world has been suffering with unemployment ranging from 4% to 20% (Spain and Greece) Thailand has escaped the great recession relatively unscathed. Well, tourism is down dramatically, and how many hundreds of thousands of Thais work in the restaurants, bars, hotels, travel agencies, mini van companies, etc, that serve that sector? Wake up and smell reality. An unemployment rate of less than one percent is nothing to complain about. It is a bit like me saying my income has dropped to seven million dollars per year, from eight million. Would that be a valid complaint? In the real world?

[Thai at Heart]

And you are absolutely wrong about hours worked for the definition of employment. There is a minimum over a time period for the measurement as to whwther someone is statistically employed.

Once again you are not talking about unemployment but rather underemployment. And once again, I will suggest you understand what unemployment measures before arguing about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underemployment

Underemployment is when a worker is employed, but his or her work hours and/or wages are less than what the worker seeks or has been previously at.

Unemployment is the measure of people able to work and looking for work but not working.

No. In order to have been counted as employed, you need to have undertaken a certain amout of paid work within the previous specified amount of time. Yes, looking for work but not working. However, of course, underemployment isn't measured. So Somchai working on the farm, is not measured as unemployed with no respect to his position, since he is not actively seeking work other than to be on the farm.

So yes, the 1% does not take any measure of the underemployment in Thailand which is a very important caveat. It also makes no measure of the issue as to whether it is possible to support oneself on the type of work provided. Hence the discussion of the fact that in the UK, unemployment as an absolute is reducing, but zero hours contracts are flourishing greatly. Throw in the forced nature of making people prove they are looking for work and then the numbers will change.

http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2000/06/art1full.pdf

Check page 5. Biiiig caveats here

Treatment of unpaid family workers - ILO = Employed. USA = Possibly Unemployed.

So housewives, people helping on the farm, etc etc are counted as EMPLOYED in this measure.

Many many local caveats in all surveys that need to be considered beyond using an absolute percentage as a useful number.

What is so difficult for you to grasp or accept ... Unemployment is the percentage of people in the total workforce (those working plus those looking for work) that want to work, are able to work and are SEEKING work but have not found it. It is not a measure of the employed and it is not a measure of the underemployed. This is not a standard to Thailand but pretty much the accepted standard around the globe. The US counts it this way and so does the UK with little variance .... http://www.bbc.com/news/business-22870886

UK: To count as unemployed, people have to say they are not working, are available for work and have either looked for work in the past four weeks or are waiting to start a new job they have already obtained. Someone who is out of work but doesn't meet these criteria counts is NOT counted as unemployed.

You are just going round and round in circles when the bottom line is Thailand's unemployment rate is about 1% and this is not only fact but a fact based on the international accepted standards to count unemployment and is a figure excepted by the international community.

You can mix in whatever stats and figures you want but this fact is not really disputable yet you keep trying to dispute it by talking about things that have nothing to do with this fact. Little variences is how folks are counted make statically little difference when comparing these rates.

It is not difficult. I am pointing out the well known limitations of unemployment surveys of which people should be aware.

The 1% in Thailand should not be taken as a huge measure of success any more than the falling unemployment.figures in the UK, when jobs are being created on zero hours contracts.

1% is a figure. Why is it so incredibly low and out of line with the figures in the rest of the world, is worth investigating.

[JohnThailandJohn]

1% is a figure. Why is it so incredibly low and out of line with the figures in the rest of the world, is worth investigating.

There are many countries with very low unemployment rates especially in SE Asia but also including. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_unemployment_rate

Why is the unemployment rate so low in Thailand .. http://www.esri.go.jp/jp/workshop/120803/120803-05.pdf

Hopefully you actually read the links this time rather than just responding because your panties are in a bunch because Thailand has lower unemployment rates than much of the West.

[JohnThailandJohn]

I was at a Thai restaurant outside Bangkok with my Thai colleagues from work. They couldn't communicate with the staff. When I asked them, what's the problem? They said the staff cannot speak Thai, they are from Myanmar. Thai people don't want to work this job.

Not sure this is unique to Thailand. USA has high unemployment rates and fairly common to find service staff at lower paying jobs barely being able to speak English. Also won't find many people born in the US picking fruit or vegetables manually on a farm.

[Thai at Heart]

1% is a figure. Why is it so incredibly low and out of line with the figures in the rest of the world, is worth investigating.

There are many countries with very low unemployment rates especially in SE Asia but also including. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_unemployment_rate

Why is the unemployment rate so low in Thailand .. http://www.esri.go.jp/jp/workshop/120803/120803-05.pdf

Hopefully you actually read the links this time rather than just responding because your panties are in a bunch because Thailand has lower unemployment rates than much of the West.

No I don't have my knickers in a bunch, because the number comes with many caveats just as the numbers for the west come with many caveats.

None more so than the way that family labour in kind on a farm is handled in Thailand. One of the biggest skews to the figure is the fact that Thailand has a remarkably large working population but so few people apparently searching for a job.

Where are all the people working? Millions on the farm. Whoopee. I am extremely envious of Thailand economic might on this issue. By the rules , working for nothing on the farm counts as employed.

If you don't think about how to educate this enormous amount of people into higher paying more productive jobs is an issue, I can guarantee you every economist in the bank of Thailand is thinking about it very hard.

This is quite humorous because I posted this very link on another thread.

Note a massive issue in Thailand is that the working population is falling among the young due to falling population growth. The handling of seasonal labour also effects figures. And as I mentioned a dozen times already, there is still a large amount of people in the agricultural industry.

All these things contribute to the figures.

Edited July 29, 2014 by Thai at Heart

[JohnThailandJohn]

1% is a figure. Why is it so incredibly low and out of line with the figures in the rest of the world, is worth investigating.

There are many countries with very low unemployment rates especially in SE Asia but also including. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_unemployment_rate

Why is the unemployment rate so low in Thailand .. http://www.esri.go.jp/jp/workshop/120803/120803-05.pdf

Hopefully you actually read the links this time rather than just responding because your panties are in a bunch because Thailand has lower unemployment rates than much of the West.

No I don't have my knickers in a bunch, because the number comes with many caveats just as the numbers for the west come with many caveats.

None more so than the way that family labour in kind on a farm is handled in Thailand. One of the biggest skews to the figure is the fact that Thailand has a remarkably large working population but so few people apparently searching for a job.

Where are all the people working? Millions on the farm. Whoopee. I am extremely envious of Thailand economic might on this issue. By the rules , working for nothing on the farm counts as employed.

If you don't think about how to educate this enormous amount of people into higher paying more productive jobs is an issue, I can guarantee you every economist in the bank of Thailand is thinking about it very hard.

This is quite humorous because I posted this very link on another thread.

Note a massive issue in Thailand is that the working population is falling among the young due to falling population growth. The handling of seasonal labour also effects figures. And as I mentioned a dozen times already, there is still a large amount of people in the agricultural industry.

All these things contribute to the figures.

And with all that said, the unemployment rate is still around 1% in Thailand ... as is all I ever was trying to communicate as it related to the article this thread is based.

[templedog]

Thailand unemployment rate is still under 1%

Officially yes.

That said, do you really believe that figure?

What conspiracy theory do you suspect would make you doubt this while other nations and global organizations don't? Do you even know how this figure is measured here and in other countries and what the definition means? How many Thais do you know looking for and unable to find work?

Been through this extensively on another thread.

Many ways that the Thai number doesn't make it entirely comparable with the west. Actively seeking employment, definition of employment, Definiton of paid work, the role of defining agricultural labour in comparison with the west etc etc.

You have no idea what you are talking about. The definition is those who are able and actively seeking work but not working ... same definition in most places including the US.

Do yourself a favor and do a little research. Numerous Asian countries have some of the lowest unemployment rates in the world. While no figures can be exact the definition and the rate is accepted by the world (those that matter - not internet posters)

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/07/14/world.comparison.unemployment/

http://www.worldfinance.com/home/top-5/top-5-countries-with-the-lowest-unemployment

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2129rank.html

http://www.esri.go.jp/jp/workshop/120803/120803-05.pdf

Went through this at length elsewhere. Not going to bother. When there are 10mn in hand to mouth labour and that counts as employed, but in the west the amount of employed persons in agriculture is 90% fewer but everything is mechanised, it is a crucial, enormous difference.

Yes by the global definition unemployment is 1%, but as with everything in economics is it great that Uncle Somchai and Auntie Sureeporn are on the farm employed but living on less than 300 baht a day? And that cousin Nattaporn is coming back from his 300 baht construction job for the rice season?

Don't bother....that is the best advice....don't bang heads in public with a FOOL. JTJ is a FOOL. A right wing NeoConservative who probably is part time employed by the Thai/US gov't....a troll in the most obvious sense. Just take a peep at his most pathetic RTP apologist posts during the Koh Tao murder cover-up.....oops, sorry JTJ...I meant....conspiracy!!! doooooooooooooooooosh. I meant, doooooooderinio. Ya, know, The Dude.

[retsdon]

Take a walk through a few major shopping malls and note down the signs being posted outside the entrances of shops and restaurants stating staff wanted.

Jobs are available for those seeking them. Problem for those unemployed are they are either too lowly educated for the jobs, or too choosy.

...agreeing that the jobs now are seen as too low for many young Thais.

We have the same problem with young Emiratis and Saudis in the Gulf.

[mac1970]

Same thing back home. Factory workers from China, Thailand and Russia. nurses and home care people from Philippines, doctors from Africa, construction workers from Poland and Estonia, cleaners from Turkey and overall Asia, bus drivers from East/South-Europe etc.

And how about locals? Complaints about missing work, low salaries, not enough government support. So how about cleaning or decent outside work? Noooo, they don't pay enough, I don't like to work outside, it's not looking good in my resume...I want something...creative, makes me feel important, career, high pay and good work/free time balance.

- And by the way, I hate foreigners, they take all the work from us and what government is doing?

- Aaa, ok, how about this work?

- No, no way, who you think I am?

- Hmmm, let me see. Unemployed???

- Outrageous !!! You just the person who has caused all this trouble!

- OK, so I assume that you're not interested about this position?

- Do you think that I am idiot? Of course not.

Just referring the discussion few weeks back...