NationThailand-June 9
The National Economic and Social Development Council reveals a slight drop in unemployment but flags a worrying trend of SME closures and a significant hurdle for new graduates entering the workforce, as employers favour experienced or freelance staff. Thailand’s National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) has expressed significant concern over the state of the nation’s job market, particularly the impact of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) closures on employment and the increasing difficulty for recent graduates to secure work.In its latest Q1 2025 Social Outlook report released on Monday, the NESDC noted a marginal decrease in the unemployment rate to 0.88 per cent from 1.01 per cent in the same period last year.However, this figure masks underlying anxieties regarding job security and future employment prospects. Danucha Pichayanan, Secretary-General of the NESDC, presented the social situation findings for the first quarter of 2025, revealing that the total employed population stood at 39.4 million, a 0.5 per cent reduction year-on-year. While agricultural employment remained stable, job numbers in non-agricultural sectors, including manufacturing, hospitality, and retail, saw a decline. Despite an ongoing recovery in the tourism sector, related employment, particularly in hotels and restaurants, continued to fall, notably affecting temporary staff. A recent report published by CORE finds Indonesia lagging other countries of Southeast Asia when it comes to youth employment, or those aged 15 to 24. Last year, the International Labor Organization estimated that the youth unemployment rate in Indonesia stood at 13.1 percent, higher than in peer countries like India, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand. A biannual survey published earlier this month by Statistics Indonesia (BPS) put youth unemployment at 16.16 percent, more than three times the overall unemployment rate of 4.76 percent. Read more at:
