Thailand's unemployment rate eased in the fourth quarter of last year, and bachelor's degree holders still maintain the highest unemployment rate, according to the latest survey by the National Statistical Office.
Piyanuch Wuttisorn, director-general of the National Statistical Office, reported on Monday 630,000 workers were left unemployed in the fourth quarter of last year, representing 1.6% of the 38.63-million-strong workforce. The rate was down from 2% in the first quarter, 1.9% in the second quarter and 2.3% in the third quarter of 2021.
According to the survey, of the total 38.63 million workforce, 37.90 million were employed persons.
Employment in the farm sector accounted for 12.60 million in the quarter, up by 1.4% from 12.43 million in the same quarter of the previous year. The farm sector remains the sector that helps shore up employment during the crisis.
Employment in the manufacturing sector decreased by 4.1% to 8.19 million from 8.54 million in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Employment in the services and trade sector was 17.11 million, down by 1.2% from 17.32 million in the fourth quarter of 2020.
The statistics showed that bachelor's degree holders accounted for the highest unemployment, representing 3.6% of the total 630,000 unemployed persons, followed by those with vocational certificates (1.9%), junior high school certificates (1.8%), high school (1.7%), primary school (1.1%) and lower primary school (0.5%).
Of the total unemployed persons, 380,000 persons had worked before, comprising 220,000 in the farm sector, 100,000 in the manufacturing sector and 258,000 in the service and trade sector.
There were 250,000 unemployed persons who had never worked, most of them aged between 15 and 24.
The main reasons for the unemployment was business closure, contract termination and dismissal.
According to Ms Piyanuch, employment in the fourth quarter showed an improvement trend mainly because the government relaxed tough safety measures to contain the Covid-19 outbreaks.
Ms Piyanuch said the agency is keeping a special watch on a group of workers with long-term unemployment for more than one year. In the fourth quarter of last year, the number of workers unemployed for more than one year accounted for 0.4% of total unemployed workers, up from 0.2% in the third quarter.
Those aged 15-24 and people aged 25-24 accounted for the majority of the long-time unemployment of more than one year.