Thailand witnessed a 0.1% decline in employment during the first quarter compared to a year earlier, primarily attributed to decreased farm positions. The National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) reported this shift after a 1.7% year-on-year rise in the preceding quarter. Agricultural jobs notably dropped by over 5.7% year-on-year, while non-farm employment increased by 2.2%, fueled by the tourism sector. Specifically, jobs in hotels and restaurants surged by 10.6% in the March quarter, buoyed by more than 9.3 million foreign tourist arrivals.
Concurrently, the jobless rate in Thailand climbed to 1.01% in the January-March period from 0.81% in the final quarter of 2023. Notably, Thailand’s unemployment metric is narrow, counting only those who did not work at all during the surveyed week as unemployed. Analysts highlight that these numbers may not fully capture Thailand’s substantial informal economy. The total workforce in Thailand stood at 40.2 million during the January-March period, a slight decrease from 40.7 million in the previous three months, as per the NESDC.
