The government should increase aid to farmers who are taking the brunt of increased unemployment caused by drought and a weak economy, the Thailand Development Research Institute said Thursday.
Associate professor Yongyuth Chalamwong, TDRI's director for labour-development research, quoted the National Statistical Office as reporting that the number of employed people fell 0.2% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2015 to 38.33 million.
The decline was most obvious among less-educated workers in the agricultural sector, which laid off employees due to water shortages and sagging prices for farm products, he said.
The number of unemployed rose 5.9% to 360,000 last year, resulting in a national unemployment rate of 0.92% in the third quarter. That was an increase from the 0.88% rate posted in the second quarter, and 0.84% in the third quarter of 2014.
Half of the jobless have never been employed, indicating many new university graduates are unable to find work, Mr Yongyuth said.
University graduates posted an unemployment rate of 1.8%, while joblessness among those with other educational backgrounds ranged between 0.2% and 1.2%.
Employment in non-agricultural sectors rose 1.7% from 24.8 million in 2014 to 25.2 million in 2015. Farm-workers employment, however, slid 3.8%, Mr Yongyuth said.
The loss of a half-million farm jobs over the past year shows that more government support for the agricultural sector is needed, Mr Yongyuth said.