Unemployment rate rises in Thailand

[GarryP]

1 hour ago, Bullie said:

But is she qualified? English means nothing, to the average Thai. Does she have a degree in economics, law, or some other useful profession?

Not that this would exceed high school standards, but in the land of the blind......

I have had my fair share of interviewing and working with Thai people fresh out of university and, to be honest, for most of them their degrees are not a good indication of how good an employee they will be. I have found common sense to be sorely lacking. Of course there are those who are absolute gems, but you are going to get through a hell of a lot of rough rocks before you find one, unless you are lucky. 

[robblok]

1 minute ago, Srikcir said:

The Sangha World in Thailand consists of about 200,000 monks. A man cannot become a monk until he reaches the age of twenty.

http://www.thailandparadise.com/thailand-monks.htm

Are monks included in unemployment figures? Or are they considered employed by a temple where they reside?

 

What do you think yourself.. it never hurts to think.

 

Of course they are not in those figures, you can only be unemployed if your looking for work, monks are full time monks and not looking for a job so not counted in the statistics. Just like your not going to count people who are at universities.. you can only be unemployed if your looking for a job and able to work (if your at a university you can't work because your study... if your a monk you can't work because your a monk)

[DrTuner]

Work 5 minutes a month fixing neighbors scooter and hey presto you're employed. 

[petermik]

9 hours ago, williamgeorgeallen said:

wonder how they come up with these numbers. no unemployment benefit collectors to count.

Do they count "motor cycle taxi drivers" as employment

[seancbk]

2 minutes ago, petermik said:

Do they count "motor cycle taxi drivers" as employment

 

That is a daft question.   Of course they do and why wouldn't they?

 

Being a motorbike taxi driver is a full time job.

[chiang mai]

22 minutes ago, Mook23 said:

Many uni degrees in thailand are pure aesthetic. And comparable with standard high school in my country...

I assign little value to most thai uni degrees. Paid for or not.

Very snobbish and not a very realistic nor practical view for an emerging country. The ratio of very good universities in Thailand to the rest is very small no doubt, compared to your country, the remainder of them are likely poor no doubt, this is after all Thailand and not the US, or the UK.

[Get Real]

They should be happy with a low rate of unemployment like the numbers say, but the quetion is: WHO made the NUMBERS? Can I really trust this???

[worgeordie]

I wonder if these figures are compiled the same way T.A.T does theirs,

by pulling them out of their....... err the air.

regards worgeordie

[mikebell]

Do police count among the employed?  Surely not!

[Bangkok Barry]

3 hours ago, CharlieK said:

 

My understanding is you need a Uni degree to work as an air steward/ess in Thailand. A glorified waiter! Which other country requires such a standard? 

When you consider that a Thai uni degree is about the same level as a high school diploma in the real world, that does make sense.

[chiang mai]

34 minutes ago, Get Real said:

They should be happy with a low rate of unemployment like the numbers say, but the quetion is: WHO made the NUMBERS? Can I really trust this???

They use sampling the same as the US.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/29/us/in-a-first-2000-census-is-to-use-sampling.html

[Bangkok Barry]

As far as I am aware Thailand has no unemployment agency. Therefore nowhere to register as unemployed. Therefore are these figures as reliable as those from TAT claiming multi-millions of tourists flooding the country?

[Prbkk]

1 hour ago, Airalee said:

What would the unemployment rate be if you took out all the superfluous workers.  Every 7-11 is staffed with 4-5 employees, all the eyeglass stores, etc etc.  I once counted 14 sales clerks in the Central Kad Suan Kaew women's shoe department with no customers in sight.

Yes, not unemployment but rather underemployment bordering on shared poverty. Most of those kids appear to be on some kind of commission as well.

[Prbkk]

53 minutes ago, Bangkok Barry said:

When you consider that a Thai uni degree is about the same level as a high school diploma in the real world, that does make sense.

 

Probably just as true about universities in the west. Some Australian universities are now really scraping the bottom of the barrel: extremely low entrance requirements, very limited support offered to those entering via "non-traditional pathways" ( aka those with scores the universities don't want to publish). 

While I believe in everyone having a go at it, some of the universities are setting up these kids to fail ( and as 'under-achievers' they are are already vulnerable). 

The attrition rates are astronomical. The universities do it not for altruism or social justice so much as to justify their own bureaucracies.

UK, similar, USA, it has been this way for decades.

[Allstars]

2 hours ago, robblok said:

you can only be unemployed if your looking for a job and able to work (if your at a university you can't work because your study..

If you're all day in a hammock or snooker hall, you're also not included for obvious reasons.

 

Ever been to the North East?

[Bangkok Barry]

10 minutes ago, Allstars said:

If you're all day in a hammock or snooker hall, you're also not included for obvious reasons.

 

Ever been to the North East?

Do you understand life outside the city? I live in the North East. Most people are farmers and their work is seasonal. When they have to get the crops in it's backbreaking work in 40 degrees, dawn to dusk. Try it sometime. When it isn't time to bring in the crops they might take to a hammock. Some do building work. What would you do while waiting for the crops to mature?

[Cracker2000]

5 hours ago, Deli said:

and I and friends as well can't find qualified staff....

 

I knew a Brit guy in Phnom Penh who ran a recruitment company used by international businesses. He said they on average had to go through 200+ 'qualified' applicants on paper just to find one candidate who they though might be able to be trained up to do the role advertised.

 

Is it the same in Thailand?

 

 

[chiang mai]

1 hour ago, Bangkok Barry said:

As far as I am aware Thailand has no unemployment agency. Therefore nowhere to register as unemployed. Therefore are these figures as reliable as those from TAT claiming multi-millions of tourists flooding the country?

Thailand does have an unemployment department although it doesn't count unemployed nationally, instead it pays a very low rate of unemployment benefit but more importantly it finds people jobs which they cannot turn down, otherwise they loose their weekly benefit.

[robblok]

33 minutes ago, Allstars said:

If you're all day in a hammock or snooker hall, you're also not included for obvious reasons.

 

Ever been to the North East?

The thing is you  need to be available for work.. otherwise you can't be counted as unemployed. I have not been in the North East.  There is nothing there for me.

[Happyman58]

I am writing this with a smile on my face. We hung a sign outside our shop for 2 months looking for wait staff Guess how many applicants we got? NONE Proves to me that thais dont want to work. Yes someone wrote about these shops with staff all over the place and no customers. When you are driving along the road you see these food stalls  The wife usually doing the cooking and the husband is lying in a hammock fast asleep. But hey he got a job right?

[seancbk]

1 hour ago, Happyman58 said:

I am writing this with a smile on my face. We hung a sign outside our shop for 2 months looking for wait staff Guess how many applicants we got? NONE Proves to me that thais dont want to work. Yes someone wrote about these shops with staff all over the place and no customers. When you are driving along the road you see these food stalls  The wife usually doing the cooking and the husband is lying in a hammock fast asleep. But hey he got a job right?

 

No.  They would not be included in the unemployment stats because they are not looking for work, they have created their own enterprise. 
 

[DrTuner]

7 hours ago, seancbk said:

 

No.  They would not be included in the unemployment stats because they are not looking for work, they have created their own enterprise. 
 

Somchai's Hammock Co. Ltd, the enterprise with most franchises within Thailand.

[HiSoLowSoNoSo]

Well they can always kick out all the Khmers and Burmese to get the figures better looking. But I doubt that the Thais would do the work they do for the same salary.

 

[Deli]

17 hours ago, elgordo38 said:

Just a question what is considered qualified in your eyes not being facetious just curious. My g/f tells me that if you do not have a degree and are not under 25 years of age your chance at a good job is nil. She speaks and UNDERSTANDS English is good with people adaptable and would understand what the job expects of her. She is a really good people person honest to the nth degree. 

Fluent English written and spoken is a must, age doesn't matter, prefer the 40 + OL's with no small kids, which keep then away from work.

Experienced on the job, used to deal with Farangs and to understand Farang mentality. Flexible in working hours ( doing OT against payment ).

Problem solver, not a shy pencil pusher with a Hello Kitty bag and 10 FB accounts. Yes, I am willing to pay for all this, but very hard to find in Phang Nga province. 

Have one and she is a Jewel :)

[futsukayoi]

17 hours ago, CharlieK said:

 

My understanding is you need a Uni degree to work as an air steward/ess in Thailand. A glorified waiter! Which other country requires such a standard? 

 

I would imagine Singapore, Hong Kong etc probably require at least high school education and in practice that is higher than a Thai degree.

[BEVUP]

12 hours ago, Cracker2000 said:

 

I knew a Brit guy in Phnom Penh who ran a recruitment company used by international businesses. He said they on average had to go through 200+ 'qualified' applicants on paper just to find one candidate who they though might be able to be trained up to do the role advertised.

 

Is it the same in Thailand?

 

 

well the good thing is at least they are looking within & willing to train not like where i come from where They will allow all & any in from unskilled to professionals only to leave their own on the scrap heap fending for the same job who would also be qualified if not better with the thousands of applications to pick from ( been there & got insulted when person said been in country for 6 mths & only had 2 yrs exp. maybe )

[55Jay]

 At my last trip to Global House, only 99 employees standing around instead of 100.  7-11 only had 1 employee standing at each of the 3 cash registers instead of the normal 2 employees per register. 

 

TRUE was the exception.  When we walked into the empty shop at the mall, there were 6 greeters - 3 on each side Wai'ing and Sawadee Crapping us to death.  One of them escorted us to a bench to have a seat, and gave us a paper queue number.  Again, we were the only customers there, about 11:30 AM on a weekday.  Our queue number was next.

 

We sat there waiting for 5 minutes before an employee sat down at a customer service window and our queue number flashed on the screen and announced in Thai.  Wife went up and started doing the business.  I walked around then out of boredom, began counting employees.  6 at the front.  4 behind the counter.  I heard laughing coming from a small office tucked away behind one end of the customer service counter.  Stuck my head over the counter and counted 4 more employees back there.  Total 14 on duty.

 

[superal]

19 hours ago, Searat7 said:

I think the "Underemployment rate"  here would be of interest too. So many people supposedly working but doing practically nothing.

Just take a look in Global for example 

[Eric Loh]

18 hours ago, chiang mai said:

Compare that "robustness" to any other countries in the Western world, line item by line item, on a percentage basis only and tell us what you see.

 

What I see is that all those western countries that are now in economic distress have their glory days in the past. What drove them to current economic woes and distress are the stuffs that Thailand should avoid like growing budget deficit, large and unproductive civil servants, wasteful and unproductive projects, huge real estate overhang, depending on loans for growth, depending on a single 'tourism' growth engine, poor investment on human resources, little innovation, continued uncompetitiveness to attract FDI and political instability due to too many coups. The last 2 financial crisis to hit Thailand should be a bitter lesson to be prudent and be financially disciplined. Respectively the problems were over building and vulnerability of Thailand economy to global downturn. 

[elgordo38]

4 hours ago, Deli said:

Fluent English written and spoken is a must, age doesn't matter, prefer the 40 + OL's with no small kids, which keep then away from work.

Experienced on the job, used to deal with Farangs and to understand Farang mentality. Flexible in working hours ( doing OT against payment ).

Problem solver, not a shy pencil pusher with a Hello Kitty bag and 10 FB accounts. Yes, I am willing to pay for all this, but very hard to find in Phang Nga province. 

Have one and she is a Jewel :)

Thank you for your reply. It goes right to the heart of what I am trying to explain to my g/f but she still as a big "bridge to cross" its called confidence. She still has this hurdle not uncommon here She is a product of the system. All my life I have been a "curiosity killed the cat" type of person.  I keep telling her age does not matter sell yourself to any prospective employer. I keep telling her after I am gone "seek and ye shall find" not that she would have to but its best to get your ducks in a row just in case in today's uncertain world. You being in business here opens a myriad of curiosity questions but I shall restrain myself. Again I appreciate your reply.  

Edited February 21, 2017 by elgordo38