Unemployment dips below 1%
Thailand’s unemployment rate continued to improve in the third quarter, thanks to a growing economy and a recovering farm sector.
The National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) reported yesterday that the unemployment rate was 0.96% of the total workforce, or 373,000 people. That was lower than in the same period last year, which saw a 1.19% rate and 453,000 people.
On a quarterly basis, the rate was down from 1.07% or 411,000 people in the second quarter of 2018.
In the third quarter, Thailand’s workforce totalled 38.7 million, up 1.5% yearon-year from 38.2 million in the same quarter last year. The figure edged up 0.63% quarter-on-quarter from 38.5 million in the second quarter.
Last year the unemployment rate was 1.18%, with the overall workforce totalling 38.1 million.
Thosaporn Sirisamphand, secretarygeneral of the NESDB, said the country’s economic growth and flourishing transport and warehouse sector created more employment in the third quarter.
For the period, 38.3 million people were employed, up from 37.6 million in the same quarter last year and 37.9 million in the first quarter this year.
“Total employment increased both overall and in key sectors,” Mr Thosaporn said. “In the third quarter of 2018, employment rose by 1.7% year-on-year. Both agricultural sectors and non-agricultural sectors expanded for the first time in 22 quarters.”
Compared with the previous quarter, employment in the agricultural sector was up 1.9% while non-agricultural employment rose by 1.6%, marking the highest growth in three years.
Mr Thosaporn said the transport/warehouse sector saw employment increase by 10.7%, the highest growth since 2014, while hotels and restaurant employment rose by 3%.
Manufacturing employment, which has increased for three straight quarters, grew by 2.8% in the third quarter, while construction employment grew by 2.6%, expanding for the first time in two years, and wholesale/retail employment rose by 0.9%.
The NESDB said unemployment dropped for all educational levels. In fact, higher educational levels had a higher jobless rate than other levels.
Total employment increased both overall and in key sectors. THOSAPORN SIRISAMPHAND NESDB secretary-general