Thailand’s unemployment rate to go below 1%

[anon4546543]

I can tell you this for nothing. I live in the boonies and there is no labour available to assist me to build my garage, my fences, and my duck coops. You can scoff all you like but I doubt many posters actually live here. Thailand is thriving, just wish some labour would assist me with my above daily wage offer. The labour would love to but they are already committed to prior projects. But TIT, is a land most posters never actually seem to have visited or never stayed long enough to see the country, not just the tourist bars. Some of you need to grab a life

[berybert]

15 hours ago, jaltsc said:

"Thailand's unemployment rate is decreasing gradually with expectation that it will drop to below one percentage point from 1.3% in the past five years."

 

That must mean that all those men who lie around all day drinking Lao Cao, playing cards, and watching muay Thai on TV, while there wives are working are considered gainfully employed. 

They are in fact known as motorbike taxi riders.

[simoh1490]

14 hours ago, williamgeorgeallen said:

i wonder how the unemployment rate is calculated. can just count up all those on the unemployment benefit. anyone got any ideas how it is guesstimated? 

Thailand uses sampling to calculate the unemployment rate, the same system that western governments use to calculate population growth outside of census, gauge political opinion, understand demographics etc. One notable part of the Thai system is that about 5% of the employed population is understood to be underemployed and this occurs when a person ends their work, returns home and does small amounts of agricultural work whilst also looking for a new job - in that example the person is deemed to be employed hence a more accurate rate of unemployment may be the headline rate plus 5%. That having been said there is no incentive whatsoever for a person to remain unemployed since hardly any benefits are paid. There is a form of unemployment pay where the person "signs on", but they are required to accept ANY job they are allocated otherwise they cease to be eligible for unemployment.

[Nip]

13 hours ago, Jackin1960 said:

They could at least lie by using a figure that is plausible. 

Maybe they are mixing it up with the ,% increase in tourism?

Edited May 2, 2017 by Nip

[dbrenn]

How on earth do they measure it? There is no social security for long term unemployed.

[simoh1490]

20 minutes ago, dbrenn said:

How on earth do they measure it? There is no social security for long term unemployed.

Read post 33.

 

Interestingly the system used here to calculate unemployment is very similar to that used in the US for the same purpose, see the link below and read the section entitled, "where do the statistics come from". https://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm

Edited May 2, 2017 by simoh1490

[futsukayoi]

So they go through all this effort to make it hard for foreigners to come and work here in order to protect Thai jobs when there are almost no Thais without a job.  Somehow I don't think even the Thai bureaucracy could be that  idiotic.

[simoh1490]

1 minute ago, futsukayoi said:

So they go through all this effort to make it hard for foreigners to come and work here in order to protect Thai jobs when there are almost no Thais without a job.  Somehow I don't think even the Thai bureaucracy could be that  idiotic.

They don't really make it hard for foreigners to work here, just some foreigners, there's over 300,000 Burmese in Phuket, they're foreigners!

[mikebell]

How many of the 99% employed actually work?  Have you ever gone into a DIY store and been followed by a gaggle of assistants bored out of their skulls as they struggle to give the impression they are gainfully employed?

[kannot]

99%  seem unemployable when Ive asked for help here

[kannot]

1 hour ago, futsukayoi said:

So they go through all this effort to make it hard for foreigners to come and work here in order to protect Thai jobs when there are almost no Thais without a job.  Somehow I don't think even the Thai bureaucracy could be that  idiotic.

you overestimate  them

[steven100]

I think it's a typo error ....  they left a 9 off.....   should read   19%  ..  sorry for that.

[pentap]

Employment figures based on what!?

What structure is in place to assist in processing the information required, to indicate the percentage of individuals, as either employed or unemployed?

Many people, I'd imagine, work for cash in-hand, therefore, for what ever there reasons maybe, they may not want to bother registering as unemployed?

I'm sorry, but I can't take-in the logic behind the statement.

However! If the statement is true, that employment is at such a low figure, I'd be amazed considering the global economic crisis., but if true, I'd have to say well done.






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[worgeordie]

I suppose all those cars and motorbikes you see in Malls,during working hours must

belong to the 1% ers.

 

regards worgeordie

[digibum]

If things get any worse, they'll have to announce that unemployment has fallen to -2%

 

 

[chickenrunCM]

20 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

Who are all those people I see lounging around town ? I guess there are different definitions of work. I was sitting outside a bar a few years ago and a policeman walked up and said "You own a property in Thailand, therefore you are working, and since you do not have a work permit you must give me 50,000 Bht right now or you are going straight to jail". Needless to say it was a friday late evening, so what choice does one have but to pay when accused of "work" !

what a bullshit, how a foreigner can own a property and why you should pay any money if you are not working.

[chickenrunCM]

18 hours ago, seadigital said:

I suppose if you're trying to attract foreign investment it's nice to be able to say we have 0% unemployment. Some call it news, some call it spin; I don't know what to believe. Perhaps I should go out on a limb and 'TRUST' on good faith?

why any foreign company would go to a country where unemployment rate is 0%? nonsense, it makes it much more expensive to get staff, higher wages, more for human resources departent. 

We looking for our restaurant since 2 years for staff, in 2 years only 3 Thai´s showed up. But i got more than 50 messages from western foreigners who are looking for a job in CM. Last week we got a warning from a police friend , that now in CM they are going after all the burmese workers, what would shut down the tourist industrie in Chiang Mai, because more than 30.000 are working in hotel, restaurants and service business here

[NCC1701A]

if sitting around all day asking "you want masssssage?" with no customers is employment, then these figures are right. 

[selftaopath]

20 hours ago, clockman said:

As there no transparency in any sector. You may as well consult the fortune teller?

Who said they didn't? lol Wouldn't surprise me if they did.

[Time Traveller]

If it wasn't for those god damn foreigners taking jobs off poor thais, then unemployment would be at zero by now. Time for a new round of crackdown on foreigners, 

[Jonmarleesco]

On 5/2/2017 at 11:27 AM, webfact said:

He said if the economy is fully recovered,  the unemployment rate is likely to drop below one percentage point, considered to be among the countries with lowest unemployment rates.

That depends on what one counts as a job. Anything to claim low unemployment stats.

[01322521959]

Don't believe it. All figures are massaged here.
Also tax collection is very erratic.

Sent from my i-mobile_i-STYLE_219 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[daveAustin]

When you figure in the civil service and hardware stores, where personnel ratio to the West is roughly 3-1, then I can see why it is so low. Then you have hundreds of thousands of monks, who cannot surely be counted as being employed and contributing. You also have hundreds of thousands of 'workers' of the other kind that are also not putting in. Hundreds in a rice paddy doing the job of one machine in Japan. Yes, there's tens of thousands of factories around Bangkok, but just don't see how it can be tallied. Have any kind of unemployment benefit here and you'd see the real figure (if they had the balls to reveal).

[IMA_FARANG]

There is such a thing as an unemployment rate and an under employment rate.

an unemployment rate has to do with those who have no job, and underemployment rate has to do with those who have  a job but no real honest function in a society.

For example, an underemployment rate is typified by those security guards with loud whistles who blow them loudly to supposedly guide you in and out of your parking space in such places as shopping mall parking slots.

And then an other example of an underemployment rate case is those people whose job seems to be turning on the water in toilets and massaging your shoulders in toilets in Soi Cowboy when you go into a toilet in one of those bars to urinate after a few beers

These are two  examples of the technically employed but functionally useless people that you encounter all the time in Thailand.

I am not impressed by a low statistic for the unemployment rate in Thailand.

I would be more   impressed if they published a statistic for the the underemployment rate in Thailand.

 

 

[attrayant]

Unemployment rate tells only half the story.  What about the underemployed?  That means the people who technically are employed because they sit on a pedestrian overpass all day and all night selling limes, but are still living in abject poverty because they can't achieve some minimal standard of living.

 

[edit] In other words, what the previous poster just said.

Edited May 3, 2017 by attrayant

[KenKadz]

Yea no shit, in Thailand if you don't work, or engage in criminal activity (which no one is going to claim) you do not eat!

[Happyman58]

1 hour ago, IMA_FARANG said:

There is such a thing as an unemployment rate and an under employment rate.

an unemployment rate has to do with those who have no job, and underemployment rate has to do with those who have  a job but no real honest function in a society.

For example, an underemployment rate is typified by those security guards with loud whistles who blow them loudly to supposedly guide you in and out of your parking space in such places as shopping mall parking slots.

And then an other example of an underemployment rate case is those people whose job seems to be turning on the water in toilets and massaging your shoulders in toilets in Soi Cowboy when you go into a toilet in one of those bars to urinate after a few beers

These are two  examples of the technically employed but functionally useless people that you encounter all the time in Thailand.

I am not impressed by a low statistic for the unemployment rate in Thailand.

I would be more   impressed if they published a statistic for the the underemployment rate in Thailand.

 

 

You just hit the nail right on the head

[simoh1490]

2 hours ago, IMA_FARANG said:

There is such a thing as an unemployment rate and an under employment rate.

an unemployment rate has to do with those who have no job, and underemployment rate has to do with those who have  a job but no real honest function in a society.

For example, an underemployment rate is typified by those security guards with loud whistles who blow them loudly to supposedly guide you in and out of your parking space in such places as shopping mall parking slots.

And then an other example of an underemployment rate case is those people whose job seems to be turning on the water in toilets and massaging your shoulders in toilets in Soi Cowboy when you go into a toilet in one of those bars to urinate after a few beers

These are two  examples of the technically employed but functionally useless people that you encounter all the time in Thailand.

I am not impressed by a low statistic for the unemployment rate in Thailand.

I would be more   impressed if they published a statistic for the the underemployment rate in Thailand.

 

 

Not quite. Underemployment is classified as when a person works only a few hours whilst looking for full time employment:

 

"More than 40 percent of Thailand's population is engaged in agriculture, where there is a high degree of underemployment and off-season unemployment. The underemployed are counted among the employed and make up about 0.5 percent of that total. If, for instance, you lose your job as a bank teller and return home and lend a hand at your dad's farm for at least one hour a week, you are considered as employed."

 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-02/thailand-s-unemployment-rate-is-a-ridiculously-low-0-6-here-s-why

[selftaopath]

12 hours ago, spiderorchid said:

I can tell you this for nothing. I live in the boonies and there is no labour available to assist me to build my garage, my fences, and my duck coops. You can scoff all you like but I doubt many posters actually live here. Thailand is thriving, just wish some labour would assist me with my above daily wage offer. The labour would love to but they are already committed to prior projects. But TIT, is a land most posters never actually seem to have visited or never stayed long enough to see the country, not just the tourist bars. Some of you need to grab a life

I live in Issan. I've hoped to employ village people. They are not that interested in working eventhough they are somewhat destitute. I am and have been willing to pay more than the "going rate." I've been told: too hot/too hard/too high/too dirty and they've told my wife "farang" want things right so don't want to work for him. ???????

[Happyman58]

1 minute ago, selftaopath said:

I live in Issan. I've hoped to employ village people. They are not that interested in working eventhough they are somewhat destitute. I am and have been willing to pay more than the "going rate." I've been told: too hot/too hard/too high/too dirty and they've told my wife "farang" want things right so don't want to work for him. ???????

Join the club mate  in Issan  We put a sign up "staff wanted"  You get fed', paid well, and get all the tips, when u serve customers and guess what? NOT one person  applied Must because of the the 1% unemployment Rate I surely dont believe that thais hate work Do they lol?