Fresh graduates hardest hit as joblessness rises
THAILAND's unemployment rate increased slightly in the first quarter amid low economic growth, while new graduates found it harder to find jobs, the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board reported yesterday.
NESDB deputy secretary-general Chutinart Wongsuban told a news conference yesterday that the unemployment rate increased from 0.89 per cent at the end of last year to 0.94 in the first quarter, while the largest unemployed group was new graduates.
“There are currently 361,297 people who are unemployed and 164,159 of them are newly graduated, a rise of 13.1 per cent from last year,” she said.
According to the statistics, 1.54 per cent of graduates with bachelor’s degrees are out of work.
Commenting on the current employment trend, Chutinart |said the engineering field was the most desired area to work in because of demand for professionals in the sector due to major infrastructure projects like high-speed railways.
“The most unemployed field is journalism and communications, with 2.77 per cent of the bachelor’s degree graduates still without a job,” she said.
“A degree in arts is next on the list, with 2.76 per cent of the new graduates from this field unemployed, and 2.71 per cent of humanities-degree graduates are jobless.”
In related news, the average salary in the private sector has risen by 4.6 per cent to Bt11,678 per month from a year ago.
However, the average wage for labourers in the agriculture sector decreased by 0.3 per cent because of the drought.
“Most of the job vacancies these days require a vocational to high-vocational certificate, which the new graduates in such degrees [as bachelor’s] still lack,” Chutinart said.
“This is because most people like to send their children to study at high school and then do an undergraduate degree rather than going to a vocational school because of the frequent news about violence among vocational students. Furthermore, the quality of the new graduates is low, which causes the salary rate to be low too.”
In a bid to boost the quality of vocational students, dual training was introduced to provide students with an opportunity to work in aligned businesses.
“The students who pass the training not only have knowledge about the job but also have more of an opportunity to get a [permanent] job,” she said.