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Thailand: Unemployment rate rises 1.3% in October

THE NUMBER of jobless rose 1.3 per cent year on year to 481,000 in October, the National Statistics Office Thailand (NSO) reported.

The figure increased by 31,000 from the same month last year and 38,000 from last month, the bureau said. Some 37.22 million people are in workforce.

University undergraduates looking for work accounted for most of those registered as unemployed. About 198,000 such university students were recorded as unemployed, up 8,000 from the same period last year.

Of the unemployed, 251,000 have no work experience, against 230,000 who have.

Among unemployed university graduates, 95,000 graduated in the academic fields, followed by 39,000 in vocational areas, according to the NSO report.

Of those unemployed with work experience, 60,000 finished secondary school, followed by university graduates and those who completed elementary school and high school.

For the month, 36.65 million people were employed. Of the total, 11.05 million were in the agricultural sector and 25.60 million in non-agricultural sectors.

The agricultural sector saw a drop of 160,000 employed people from October last year. Most of the decline in employment occurred in the tapioca-growing industry and other crop production, including corn.

The non-agricultural sectors saw a drop of 330,000 in the number of employed – mostly in manufacturing, construction, public administration for defence, mandatory social security insurance, property, education and other services.

Elsewhere, those in 10 occupations face risks to their work security from artificial intelligence (AI), according to the Ministry of Finance.

Soraphol Tulayasathien, deputy spokesman for the Finance Ministry , said that according to the Fiscal Policy Office, the occupations that could be replaced by AI in the future included website developers, online marketers, office caretakers, accountants, human resources workers, reporters, editors, lawyers, physicians and psychologists.

AI describes the intelligence exhibited by machines or software which mimics cognitive functions such as learning and problem solving. AI is forecast to boost developed countries’ gross domestic product by 1.7 times in 2035.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/Economy/30332825