Despite economic growth in the first quarter, Thailand's employment contracted for a third straight quarter in the period, attributed to technological disruption.
The National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) reported yesterday that domestic employment fell by 0.2% year-on-year because of a 2.8% decline in the non-agricultural sector.
Employment in the agricultural sector expanded by 6% from the first quarter of 2017 as a result of favourable weather conditions and sufficient irrigation.
According to the report, although the overall economic outlook for both Thailand and the world is relatively positive, it does not reflect overall employment, which continues to shrink, especially in the construction and services sectors.
The employment rate contracted 1.6% in the third quarter and 0.6% in the fourth quarter last year after growing 0.4% in the second quarter and 0.6% in the first quarter.
For the whole year, employment contracted 0.6% in 2017 to 37.45 million people from 37.69 million the year before. The labour force totalled 38.1 million in 2017, down 400,000 from 2016.
In the first quarter this year, the number of employed persons totalled 37.36 million, with the workforce totalling 38.14 million.
"Despite the country's economic growth of 4.8% in the first quarter, the fastest pace in five years, the employment remained in a slump in the same quarter, as technology disruption has taken its toll, especially on non-farm sectors," said deputy secretary-general Chutinat Wongsuban.
Employment in construction dropped 11.8% in the first quarter, with that of retail and wholesale contracting 2.8%, hotels and restaurants 1.3% and logistics 3.2% as local entrepreneurs use more automation in their production processes.
The unemployment rate stayed unchanged in the first quarter, with 470,000 unemployed people. In 2017, the number of unemployed persons totalled 451,000, a significant rise from 378,000 in 2016.
The NESDB said income from agricultural labour is likely to fluctuate from the price of agricultural products, which is in a downward trend on average of 2.2%, 12.9% and 6.02% since the second quarter of 2017, to the third quarter, and the fourth quarter of 2017, respectively.
The prices of agriculture products dropped 12.3% in the first quarter of this year. This fluctuation resulted from the decline in world prices of agricultural products, especially in rubber and palm oil. In addition, agricultural production is increasing due to weather and availability of water.
The NESDB also suggested that concerned agencies monitor establishments to ensure compliance with the new minimum wage, which became effective on April 1, and to stay alert of its impact on the business sector.
The NESDB warned that household debt is likely to soar, as indicated by outstanding consumer loans from commercial banks that rose 7.1% in the first quarter from 6.1% in the fourth quarter of last year.
Car loans also continued to expand and stayed relatively high at 10.6% in the first quarter.
Non-performing consumer loans totalled 115.91 billion baht in the first quarter, up 5.5% year-on-year.