Report on Thailand’s Social Situation

(14/03/2013)

The Cabinet, during its meeting on 12 March 2013, acknowledged a report on Thailand’s social situation in the fourth quarter of 2012 and the overall social situation in 2012. The report, prepared by the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Board, states that employment trends in Thailand have been improving. According to the report, employment from October to December 2012 rose by 1.7 percent, with 39.6 million people employed. Employment in the agricultural sector expanded by 3 percent, while that in the non-agricultural sector increased by 0.8 percent. The unemployment rate was at a low level of 0.48 percent, a decline from 0.63 percent, when compared to the same period in 2011. For the entire year of 2012, employment increased by 5.2 percent. The report called for preparations of manpower, in terms of both quantity and quality, for the ASEAN Community 2015. In the short term, shortages of labor in certain fields must be eased and labor restructuring must be undertaken in the long run. Concerning education, the report called for the upgrading of the quality of education through education reform. For example, classroom teaching hours should be reduced and emphasis should be placed on result-based education. Regarding public health, the number of patients diagnosed with diseases under the National Communicable Disease Surveillance System increased by 57.5 percent. Prevalence of non-communicable diseases was still on the rise. The number of patients suffering from hemorrhagic fever in the fourth quarter of 2012 was higher than the number in the same period of 2011 by almost threefold. Cancer remains the biggest killer in Thai society. Drinking and smoking behavior of parents and friends led to a greater number of new drinking and smoking youths. Expenditure for alcohol consumption was on the rise, while that for tobacco consumption was on the decline. Family relations were not as close as they used to be. Technological advances provided children with easier access to inappropriate media content. Teenage pregnancy was still on the increase. According to the report, households were at risk of recurring debt, as household debt was much larger than savings, and it continued to grow. Outstanding debts for personal consumption rose by 21.6 percent. Car and motorcycle loans rose by 33.9 percent and personal consumption by 29.4 percent. Based on the household socio-economic survey in 2011, 9.09 million households, or 45 percent of total households in the country, had no saving ability. All types of crime cases were on the increase, and 83.9 percent of these cases were related to drugs. In 2012, drug cases increased by 5.4 percent, while children and youths continued to be the main target of the drug trade. Social protection became more inclusive. However, some processes were overlapping and unfair. Workers with social insurance coverage increased to 11.7 million in 2012, accounting for 29.7 percent of the labor force. More than 700,000 of these workers were in the informal sector.