The unemployment rate among young people in Thailand has reached a level unseen in recent years due to Covid-19, according to a new brief from the International Labour Organization (ILO).
The labour market update found that youth employment fell by 7% in the first quarter of 2021 (from the fourth quarter of 2019). The rate was up 3 percentage points for both men and women, reaching a high of 6% and 8%, respectively.
According to the report, pandemic-related restrictions particularly affected employment in smaller businesses and the like with fewer than 50 workers. Youth employment here suffered the most, falling by 18% for young men and by 24% for young women.
"The impact of Covid-19 on the economy has seen young people and small establishments especially hard hit. Targeted responses focussing on key sectors and segments of the workforce are vital for recovery, as are continuing efforts to ensure everyone receives a vaccination, including migrant workers," said Graeme Buckley, the ILO's country director for Thailand, Cambodia and Lao PDR.
Between the fourth quarter of 2019 and the first quarter of this year, total working hours fell by 7% or a decline in full-time equivalent employment by 2 million. A fairly strong recovery in working hours and employment in the last half of 2020 was reversed in the first quarter of 2021 due to re-emerging waves of the pandemic.
A looming concern is that the pandemic has further affected Thailand in the second and the third quarters of 2021, and is also biting into the fourth quarter.
In the third quarter of this year, the stringency of Covid-19 restrictions was equivalent to those in the second quarter of 2020. A similar magnitude of socioeconomic shock as the one seen in the second quarter of 2020 could therefore be expected, the report said.