The Thailand Development and Research Institute (TDRI) on Tuesday called on the Labour Ministry to speed up developing Thai labour skills to tackle the looming unemployment woes.

Yongyuth Chalaemwong, director of TDRI Labour Development Research, said the Labour Ministry must rapidly turn the country’s informal workforce into mainstream workers and employees by providing training and finding appropriate jobs for them.

This includes more than half a million new graduates — the 521,199 young men and women who should be more competitive in the labour market, he said, warning that the country may suffer a 1 per cent unemployment rate, or 390,000 unemployed workers, in the third quarter of this year.

Mr Yongyuth’s remark came on the heels of a report by the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) that the unemployment rate in the second quarter of this year was 0.85 per cent, an increase from the 0.6 per cent registered in the corresponding period of last year.

Last year’s massive floods and an increase in the daily minimum wage to Bt300 resulting in the closures of some small-and medium-size businesses were blamed for the higher amount of unemployment. (MCOT online news)

via Thailand’s think tank flashes warning on labour situation.