Thailand has reported a slight decrease of 0.1 per cent in employment during the first quarter of this year, compared with the same time last year. The main reason for this was a drop in jobs available in the agriculture sector, the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) said. This comes after an increase of 1.7% in employment in the previous quarter.
The decrease in jobs in agriculture was considerable. It fell by more than 5.7% in the first quarter of the year, which is normally a quiet time for farming. On the other hand, there was a rise of 2.2% in non-farming jobs, mainly due to more work in the tourism industry. The hotel and restaurant industries also created more jobs, with a notable increase of 10.6% in the first quarter of the year. This was mainly because of the high number of foreign tourists, which was over 9.3 million.
However, the national unemployment rate increased to 1.01% in the first three months of the year, compared with 0.81% in the last quarter of last year. It’s important to note that in Thailand, you’re only considered unemployed if you don’t work at all during the week the data is collected. Some people believe this doesn’t give an accurate picture of unemployment in Thailand, which has a large informal economy. The total number of people working in Thailand was just over 40 million in the first three months of the year, down from 40.7 million in the previous quarter.
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has asked to meet ministers in charge of the economy urgently to talk about what can be done quickly to boost the economy. This was after the NESDC said the Thai economy only grew by 1.5% in the first quarter of the year. Government spokesman, Chai Wacharonke said this modest growth means there is a need to support small and medium-sized businesses and households that are in danger of not being able to pay their debts. He said the government will implement these measures quickly, but added that other long-term plans will be introduced later.
