Young Thai graduate unemployment reaches 14% as AI reshapes jobs

Thailand’s labour market is facing growing pressure as artificial intelligence transforms jobs and skills, while young people with university degrees are experiencing much higher unemployment than the national average, speakers at Nation Forum 2027 warned.

The issues were discussed during “The Lifelong Workforce Pivot” session by Korn Chatikavanij, a Democrat Party-list MP and deputy party leader; Assistant Professor Jennifer Chavanovanich, associate dean of Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Psychology; and Tanpong Sukhonpanich, Chief Enterprise Officer at FutureSkill for Business.

Their discussion covered challenges ranging from skills development and organisational adaptation to the need for a national strategy that helps Thailand respond to the rapid spread of AI.

Young graduates face tougher job market

Korn highlighted what he described as a worrying imbalance in the labour market.

While Thailand’s overall unemployment rate is about 1%, representing roughly 400,000 people, he said the rate among those aged 15–24 rises to 3–4%. Among people in the same age group with bachelor’s degrees or higher, unemployment reaches 13–14%.

The figures, he argued, show that higher educational qualifications no longer automatically translate into better employment prospects, particularly for new graduates without work experience.

At the same time, AI is rapidly changing what employers require from workers.

Korn backed approaches that allow young people to combine study with employment so they can gain practical experience before graduation. Securing a first job is particularly important because it provides the foundation for later career development, he argued.

Without early access to the labour market, young people risk missing opportunities to build skills and could become more vulnerable as technology takes over more tasks.

“The key for workers today is no longer a subject that they learn once and use for the rest of their lives, but adaptability — the readiness to adjust,” Korn said, adding that workers could face major skills transitions every five years.

Manufacturing is facing similar pressure from technological competition. Korn pointed to China’s “dark factories”, where robots and AI can operate production processes with little or no direct human involvement.

Although AI can improve productivity, raise product quality and reduce costs, he argued that widespread adoption of the same technology does not necessarily mean higher profits for every company. Consumers may instead capture some of the benefits through cheaper products, such as electric vehicles.

Thai businesses therefore face the challenge of adopting technology quickly enough to maintain competitiveness.

AI use still lacks basic understanding

Tanpong said FutureSkill’s learning data showed that demand for new skills was not focused exclusively on AI.

Among individual consumers buying courses themselves, Excel remained the most popular course this year, followed by SQL and data analytics, with AI subsequently climbing in popularity.

He said this showed that fundamental data-management and workplace tools remain important despite the intense attention surrounding artificial intelligence.

Among corporate clients buying training for employees, organisations were also investing in leadership and critical thinking alongside AI.

Tanpong said some skills could lose value as AI becomes faster at producing certain types of work, including content writing and image creation.

By contrast, he expected skills involving thinking, marketing strategy, critical thinking and empathy to become more valuable.

Learning AI should therefore go beyond knowing how to use individual tools or write prompts, he argued.

Workers need systematic thinking so that they can first understand the objective and desired outcome of a task, then decide how AI can be applied appropriately to create value.

A major problem for Thai organisations, he said, was not a lack of AI use but employees using the technology without understanding how it works or where its limitations lie.

An assessment of AI capabilities among staff at Thai organisations, based on four proficiency levels, produced an average score of just 1.8, according to Tanpong.

Some employees accepted AI-generated answers without checking them, he said, making it harder for businesses to obtain the expected return on their technology investments.

He recommended beginning with basic awareness of AI’s strengths and limitations, assessing employee capabilities against business objectives, closing skills gaps and then redesigning workflows to create new products and services.

Workers need mental flexibility as skills change

Jennifer said successful reskilling requires more than simply acquiring new knowledge. Workers must also change how they think when moving into different environments.

Even soft skills do not necessarily transfer unchanged between jobs, she noted.

A leadership style based on giving instructions in one role, for example, may need to become more focused on listening and asking questions in another industry.

She described cognitive flexibility, or the ability to adjust ways of thinking and solving problems according to circumstances, as an important part of lifelong learning.

Constantly learning new things, however, can also cause fatigue, particularly when workers feel they cannot keep up or perform new tasks as well as expected.

Jennifer therefore recommended developing self-compassion rather than repeatedly criticising oneself after mistakes.

People who can accept mistakes and identify what can be learned from them are better positioned to develop resilience and recover from setbacks, she argued.

Greater self-awareness can also help workers see early difficulties as temporary rather than permanent limitations.

She stressed that adaptation should not be left entirely to individuals. Families, employers and the government should help create environments that support continued learning.

Families can encourage effort rather than focus on failure, while managers should allow employees to experiment, learn and build confidence. Organisations should also foster psychological capital and a sense of hope during periods of uncertainty.

Korn calls for Thai AI capabilities

At the national level, Korn warned that only a relatively small share of Thailand’s population might adapt successfully enough to benefit significantly from the AI economy, leaving many others at risk of falling behind.

He argued that the government therefore has a responsibility to ensure that people across society have opportunities to participate in the economic transition.

AI could also pose challenges to Thailand’s tax structure, he said.

Tax revenue has traditionally depended heavily on human employment and economic activity. As AI becomes more important, a larger share of economic gains could flow to capital owners and overseas technology companies while Thailand remains primarily a user of their services.

This could lead to money flowing overseas without Thailand necessarily being able to capture a sufficient share through taxation, Korn argued.

The problem comes as the country is also dealing with an ageing population and fewer births, while the state will continue to need resources to support citizens and manage economic disruption.

Korn noted that other countries had discussed ideas including universal basic income and taxes on technology companies, but argued that Thailand should not settle for being only a consumer of foreign technology.

He proposed developing Thai sovereign data and an open-weight AI model through cooperation between government, universities and industry.

“Thailand must build its own model to preserve data sovereignty and the country’s competitiveness,” he said.

That does not mean Thailand needs to own every leading-edge technology or manufacture every type of advanced semiconductor, Korn added.

Instead, the country should identify areas where its existing strengths give it a competitive position.

Thai culture, soft power and the country’s hospitality and service capabilities could be combined with technology to create economic opportunities and spread the benefits more widely, he said.

Learning should become part of working hours

Tanpong proposed that businesses allocate about two to three hours of working time each week for employees to develop new skills rather than requiring them to do all additional learning in their personal time.

The approach would be particularly helpful for employees in their 30s and 40s who may be balancing work with family and other responsibilities, he said.

Workers themselves also need to remain willing to learn, while the government should make upskilling opportunities easier to access.

Jennifer suggested that employees build a sense of control by setting small, achievable learning goals, such as acquiring a little new knowledge each week.

Completing these goals could help workers regain confidence that they can still influence the direction of their lives even when external conditions remain uncertain.

Korn said the government, meanwhile, must develop policies that give Thais from all parts of society access to technology and opportunities to grow with it, rather than allowing the benefits of AI to become concentrated among a limited group.