Thailand’s unemployment rate in the first quarter of the year has fallen to its lowest level since the pandemic and tended to decline further amid recovering economic activity as the country eased restrictions, the state economic planning agency said Monday.
The Southeast Asian country’s unemployment rate, covering the first quarter, dropped to 1.53 percent, representing 610,000 jobless workers, from 1.64 percent the previous quarter, data from the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) showed.
The reading was the lowest since a jobless rate of 1.03 percent was recorded in the first quarter of 2020, before COVID-19 began to hammer the economy.
According to the NESDC, during the January-March period, employment increased 3 percent from one year earlier, with higher employment both in the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors.
Looking forward, the agency expected the unemployment rate to further decline but warned of the impact of rising commodity prices on workers’ living costs as well as agricultural and transportation employment. ■
