Thailand Has World's Lowest Unemployment Rate

[Buckwheat]

It's a typo....they forgot the 6 in front of the 1.9%

[Cool Water Palace]

Obviously necessary to be somewhat sceptical on comparing countries so widely different in their work patterns. South Africa the highest, for example? Perhaps the stats only included developed and 'emerging' economies. So Zimbabwe at 80% unemployment does not count as that is a demerging economy!

[Sing_Sling]

Zimbabwe is undergoing a reverse industrial revolution and is therefore exempt from statisticians foibles.

[Martin]

This appears to be 'bean-counting' gone mad.

The concept of "you are either an employment statistic or an unemployment statistic" is so urbanised, Western-centric, industrialism-centric, all-pervading-capitalism-centric that it is totally unappliable (and inapplicable) in Thailand.

Thailand is a country based on families in rural areas that grow rice and catch fish and gather forest products for own use, plus some surplus to trade for other needs. It now has some manufacturing industry, into which people can float in and out, according to whether the family is better served by that, or not.

And, consequently and for other reasons, it has a growing urban sector. But that could dwindle as fast as it has grown over the past few decades.

These 'bean counters' have a view that Society is run on the lines of "Thou shalt be a Manager, or one of the managed, or self-employed, or else 'an unemployed', and there is nothing else".

Nothing could be further from the truth for Thailand.

I can point to people in Thailand who are semi-employed, semi-entrepreneurs and semi-unemployed all at the same time and in different proportions at different times of a year.

I wonder if Thailand was included in this list out of ignorance, or very-cleverly to make a mockery of Western-centric thinking?

[astral]

There used to be a line on the Thai passport for Occupation.

The vast majority of passports had Employee in that space.

[XkWiZiT]

switzerland is 4.4% and thailand is 1.9? now that's total bullcr*p. When i was living in switz I didn't see that any one sleeping on pavements (at least not during daylight), didn't see beggars...

oh wait...are those "me love u long time" girls considered employed? how about those guys making BBQ on the streets?

[Martin]

'astral', in post #35, said:

"There used to be a line on the Thai passport for Occupation.

The vast majority of passports had 'Employee' in that space. "

Could those have been passports that were applied for when the person was recruited, by an agent, to go abroad and fill a position in a recruitment contract?

And would the passport application form have been filled in by the agent to help the applicant?

So it could be a reflection of: "S/he is going to be slotted into some job or other, but we (as yet) know not what"!!

[Thaible]

thai men being lazy is a stereotype. while probably a good percentage of them are, most of them where i live work really hard. it would be unfair to them to make such assumptions.

it makes sense that thais have low unemployment when anyone at any time can throw up a little table and start selling somtam or fruit.

Thank you for defending Thai men. The level of racism here can be quite shocking sometimes.

[fxm88]

The ILO classes unemployed people as those of working age who do not have paid employment or who are self-employed even though they actively seek work.

So then they're not including those who've given up looking for work, so-called "discouraged workers". I wonder how many of those there are in Thailand. And also the "underemployed" (although such a thing is hard to imagine given Thailand's 12-hour workdays.)

[redewenur]

Someone's idea of propaganda? Slightly over the top, though: "lowest unemployment in the world" - surely they could do better than that. Living in a rural area, I see a very large number of people who make a few baht from their little plot of land, and get the occasional chore on a neighbour's plot, or the odd job such as repairing someone's irrigation pipe. A subsistence livelihood and far from steady employment, but I guess it counts in the stats.

There are zero grounds for assuming that Thais are lazy. Just take a look at people carrying cement and laying bricks all day in 35 degrees of relentless sun - not only men, but not so young ladies too. OK, it takes all kinds, and you find them all around the world, but let's bury the rediculous stigmatisation.

Edited December 10, 2006 by redewenur

[LOS4words]

Hahaha have any of these statistics people even been to Thailand?

[Soiboy]

This appears to be 'bean-counting' gone mad.

The concept of "you are either an employment statistic or an unemployment statistic" is so urbanised, Western-centric, industrialism-centric, all-pervading-capitalism-centric that it is totally unappliable (and inapplicable) in Thailand.

Thailand is a country based on families in rural areas that grow rice and catch fish and gather forest products for own use, plus some surplus to trade for other needs. It now has some manufacturing industry, into which people can float in and out, according to whether the family is better served by that, or not.

And, consequently and for other reasons, it has a growing urban sector. But that could dwindle as fast as it has grown over the past few decades.

These 'bean counters' have a view that Society is run on the lines of "Thou shalt be a Manager, or one of the managed, or self-employed, or else 'an unemployed', and there is nothing else".

Nothing could be further from the truth for Thailand.

I can point to people in Thailand who are semi-employed, semi-entrepreneurs and semi-unemployed all at the same time and in different proportions at different times of a year.

I wonder if Thailand was included in this list out of ignorance, or very-cleverly to make a mockery of Western-centric thinking?

Yes, very true. They really have no concept of the 'real' economy in Thailand which is still a majority of rural folks doing very untypical 'employment'.

Besides this, anyone who knows even very basic economics would realize that an unemployment rate below 2% would mean an INSANE labor shortage and most likely corresponding drastic inflation of both prices and wages. But, again, that is true more of western, urbanized economies. So, to confirm Martin's opinion, and others, an unemployment rate of 1.9% for Thailand is meaningless and not even quite accurate. Some other measure has to be created for countries such as Thailand.

[Rinrada]

And who keeps track of the statistics? I am not aware of an employment office here.

No need ...with FULL employment theres nobody to work in them anyway.

..that why it called LOS....

....and where would they...if they existed.... cash their Giros?

[bina]

the amphur labour department keeps track; as i mentioned before, what most of u seem not aware of is the very large percentage of thai men between the ages of 20 and 37 working abroud and they are now -- the gov't that is-- enforcing an old law which means that anyone working overseas must go thru the amphur labour office for a stamp in the passport before leaving thailand. if u are going thru a manpower company, it is taken care of automatically, if u are leaving thailand to go back to your place of work after a month vacation , then u have to do it on your own... and , as we found out, most thai workers going over seas dont know of this law and get sent back home to do it... this way thailand keepstrack of thai laboureres going overseas for work...

bina and anon

[deathmetalxxx]

When I see Thais sleeping on whatever spot they found, I do not consider them working. But the stats do, so, ok, fine.

pay a quick visit to the states and im sure you'll be pleasantly surprised at the number of stupid crackers sleeping on every possible job

[mikeinminburi]

just because some thai people sleep where ever they can, doesnt mean they are unemployed.

if you worked as a construction worker, or labourer and got 200 baht a day would you spend that on somewhere to live?

or would you spend it on food and beer?

exactly.

i would rather eat and drink and sleep in a HOT climate (dont forget its not cold at night) than sleep on a floor in a room and be starving.