There are more unemployed people in Thailand in the second quarter of 2016, according to a report released today by the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB).
Poramethee Wimonsiri, NESDB Secretary-General, said that the country’s number of employed people dropped by 0.9 percent, almost a full one percent, compared to the same period a year earlier, reported Thai News Bureau.
Poramethee noted that, in April and June, there were approximately 410,000 unemployed Thais. That number represents 1.08 percent of the workforce. A year earlier it was 0.8 percent.
He credited the loss of employment this year’s droughts, which lowered agricultural jobs by 6.2 percent in that sector.
With regards to making predictions about the rest of the year, the Secretary-General was unsure if there would be improvement in the agricultural sector’s hiring numbers. He was also interested in seeing how the government’s new minimum wage rule for skilled workers would affect jobs in the industrial sector.