More disguised unemployment in Thailand in 1st q

BANGKOK, May 28 (TNA) - The National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) reported Monday that Thailand faced more disguised unemployment in the first quarter of this year, as local business operators were likely to relocate their production from the Thai economy, amid rising household debts and more Thai people suffering from tension in the wake of the country's flooding crisis late last year. NESDB Secretary General Arkom Termpitayapaisit told a press conference that Thailand's employment actually increased in the first quarter of this year, as most business operators have called their staffs back to work since February 2012, causing a drop in the country's unemployment rate, compared to the figure in the same period of last year. Arkom said that there were some 285,150 jobless people in the country in the first quarter of this year, acknowledging, however, the number of people with disguised unemployment in the first three months rose to 557,540, with 445,785 being seasonal unemployed. According to the NESDB chief, although wages and salaries in the Thai private sector rose by 15.1 per cent, goods prices increased by 3.4 per cent during the January-March 2012, resulting in the net wage increment of 11.4%. Besides, business operators started to relocate their production to border provinces and even neighboring countries to cut costs, the NESDB chief, thus, urged the government to assist the local business firms. The government-run think tank chief also assessed that household debts are likely to rise this year because families need to repair their flood-affected houses and buy necessary products after last year’s massive flooding. The NESDB secretary-general pointed out that an urgent problem appears to be Thailand's low quality of education, reflected by Thai students' low scores in main subjects of their ordinary national educational test or O-NET, or below 50 per cent from 2008 to 2011, considered as an obstacle for Thailand to enter the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015. Regarding health, the NESDB secretary general said that more Thai people were suffering from tension, with the number of Thai people seeking mental health advice, especially for their tension, rose to 124,984 during the first quarter of this year, cautioning that Thai people were found to have used more medicines than their real needs. (TNA)