First job proving increasingly elusive for fresh Thai graduates
Is it getting increasingly harder for new Thai graduates to land their first job? Thai youngsters are encountering a wide range of factors that are affecting their abilities to adapt to the demands of the labour market.
They mostly struggle in the transition from school to work due to a lack of career readiness caused mainly by low educational achievement, a lack of marketable skills and a lack of interpersonal skills, according to a Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) report in 2020.
The Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) says Thailand’s unemployment rate was quite low, at around 1% during the 1990s. The Covid-19 outbreak altered this trend, particularly in 2019 and 2021. The percentage of unemployed youth and adults rose in 2019 from 5.8% and 0.5%, respectively, to 8.6% and 1.6% in 2021, highlighting a widening gap between the youth and adult jobless rate.
The NESDC reported a 3.1% unemployment rate among new university graduates, up from 1.8% a year earlier, attributing labour skills mismatch as a possible factor.
The unemployment problem
“The majority of the unemployed are those who graduated in the social sciences, business administration, and commerce,” says Jinangkun Rojananan, deputy secretary-general of the NESDB.
Due to the excess supply, most of the unemployed individuals shift to work in different fields unwillingly. This has resulted in freshly recruited people having backgrounds and skill sets that do not fit the employers’ and the economy’s needs.
Covid-19 precipitated an increase in the unemployment gap between 2019 and 2021, forcing job hunters to spend more time looking for job opportunities. This factor potentially discourages workers, who then turn to becoming invisible in the job market – like opting for self-employment or giving up on looking for any jobs.
According to the National Statistical Office, most new graduates in Thailand prefer to be self-employed as seen in the increasing number of self-employed: 46,000 in 2019, to 56,000 in 2021.
A 2023 report from UNICEF titled “In-depth Research on Youth Not in Employment, Education or Training in Thailand” revealed that nearly seven out of 10 unemployed Thai youngsters lack the ambition to improve their skills or seek work. The acronym NEET – Not in Education, Employment, or Training – was coined to describe a person who is unemployed and not receiving an education or vocational training. The NEET category includes the unemployed (individuals without a job and seeking one), as well as individuals outside the labour force (without a job and not seeking one). It is usually age-bound to exclude people in old-age retirement.
Furthermore, job seekers and future graduates lack access to career guidance, mentorship, effective employment matching and career opportunities.
Employers prefer to hire more experienced workers even in low-skilled positions, leaving recent graduates who have no internships and work experience to have a more difficult time when hunting for jobs in the market, according to a 2020 TDRI report titled “Youth Employability Scoping Study”.
According to a forecast on the labour market situation in 2022-23 by the Department of Employment, unemployment of new graduates is an important issue and will likely have long-term effects, especially the skilled gap. If this group of people is unemployed for a few years, it will make it even more difficult for them to find jobs when another group of new graduates – around 400,000 - 500,000 people a year – enters the labour market.
Thailand’s unemployment rate significantly recovered after the pandemic as shown in an April 2024 report in Global Finance, an English-language monthly financial magazine. The report said that Thailand's unemployment rate in 2024 fell to 1.1% from 1.2% last year, making the country’s recovery one of the fastest in Southeast Asia in terms of the employment rate, followed by Singapore (1.9%) and Vietnam (2%).
Living and working in Bangkok
Despite the improved unemployment rate, people who are new to the workforce with low work experience have less power to negotiate on salaries.
Even though Thailand’s inflation rate is only 0.6% (as of April 2024), the economy has not yet recovered since the pandemic. Siam Commercial Bank’s Economic Intelligence Center (SCB EIC) estimated that the Thai economy in 2024 would recover slowly and grow at a lower rate due to weaker economic momentum following this year's high growth in private consumption and a slower-than-expected recovery in household income, particularly among the low-income group.
Junior workers with 0-3 years of working experience receive on average 15,000-20,000 baht a month, according to human resources solution provider Adecco (2024).
Apartment and condo prices in Bangkok have been rising over the last decade, especially in the city’s most popular expat areas like Sukhumvit.
To get a clear picture of what is going on, if a first jobber gets to start a career in the Sukhumvit area, there is no chance that they will live in the vicinity of their companies due to the costly accommodation. Most of them will be living near BTS and MRT lines at far-flung stations and travel to the city centre for work just to save costs.
Travel Happy, a travel guide website covering Southeast Asia, reported that most apartments in Bangkok, with about 20 to 40 square metres of space that charge less than 10,000 baht in rent, are located towards the ends of the BTS and MRT lines. A lot of apartments in this price range can be found from On Nut BTS onwards to the end of the Sukhumvit Line and in the Huay Kwang to Bang Sue stretch of the MRT, which means that the first jobbers have to travel a long distance from their accommodation to their place of work. In other words, saving money on accommodation is offset by higher transportation costs.
The BTS and MRT rate in Thailand was considered the highest in Asia in 2023, according to Thai news agency Today. The average fare per trip was 39.50 baht, which would account for 11% of the 353 baht minimum daily wage. Thailand was followed by Malaysia (8.4%), Vietnam (6.9%), the Philippines (4.5%), Singapore (3.5%), China (3.2%), Taiwan (3%), Japan (2.9%), Indonesia (2.5) and South Korea (1.5%).
The Nation spoke to a 23-year-old first jobber, who wanted to remain anonymous, on her experience with getting a job and juggling her monthly budget. She graduated in 2023 from the faculty of Mass Communication Technology, Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi.
“Only two out of 10 of my friends have got a full-time job. The rest of them are either waiting to apply for jobs after the graduation ceremony, or some just failed several attempts to land a full-time job so they are doing part-time or freelance work instead,” she said.
At first, she was looking for a career in TV production, she said. Despite serving an internship on filming sets, no production house contacted her back. This forced her to apply for different jobs and event marketing eventually became her new career.
“I feel lucky that doing an internship was a requirement of my university to complete a bachelor's degree programme. It put me in a better position than other new graduates who had no experience at all in finding a job,” she says.
Her current job earns her 18,000 a month, with another 2,000 baht boost once she passes her probation. However, managing her expenses living in Bangkok with her present salary is posing challenges, as it does to many other new jobbers.
Her office is situated around the Sutthisan MRT station, but she cannot afford accommodation in that area so she has chosen to stay far away.
“If I stay around Sutthisan, the most affordable lodging for me would cost 8,000-9,000 baht a month, excluding water and electricity bills. So I decided to stay at my current place in Nawamin, where I’m paying 4,000-5,000 baht a month, water and power included.”
To commute from her residence in the Nawamin neighbourhood, she must take the MRT Yellow Line, change to the Blue Line and alight at Sutthisan station. Her daily commute to work used to cost her around 100 baht a day. Later she decided to ride her own motorbike to work, as it cost her only 800 baht per month for petrol as opposed to the 2,300 baht she was spending for the train commute.
“Lodging is my biggest spending, followed by expenses for meals and transport. I made myself set aside 1,000 baht a month for savings, but I wonder how people who make only 15,000 baht a month manage. Would they be able to save any money at all?”
Lessons from Hong Kong
The challenge of finding a first job, living in an expensive city and managing one’s limited budget are similar for Bangkokians as for Hongkongers.
With unemployment rate at 2.8% in 2024, according to Global Finance, Hong Kong's government has taken steps to subsidise and help its new workers survive in the city with the priciest residential property market in the world.
“There are youth hostels situated across Hong Kong. The project was the result of the government’s initiative 10 years ago and implemented in recent years,” says Kiko.
Some buildings are newly built while others were previously hotels that the government converted into youth accommodations to tackle the high cost of living in Hong Kong which severely affects new graduates entering the workforce.
This project got great feedback from youth and enjoys a high occupancy rate. The most popular branch is in Wan Chai district, an urban area of Hong Kong.
She thinks that it is a good idea the government initiated this project. “If I wasn’t picked to live here, I would need to rent accommodation at the market rate, which is double the price of the youth hotel. The room rent I pay here is just around HK$3,200 [around 15,000 baht] not including the water and electricity bills,” says Kiko.
She sympathises with her friends who could not qualify for a place in a youth hostel. “It’s not just my friends, there are plenty of those who need to find their way to live in this pricey city. I want this scheme to apply to all youth, not just some of us,” says Kiko.
Poyin, a new employee in the media field, failed to apply for this programme. She needed to enter a lucky draw last year after writing an essay elaborating why she should be chosen to get a place in the property, but she didn’t make it to the final candidates.
“I think I am not the only one who struggles to survive in Hong Kong. I’m always hoping that our government can give us more support, in rental fees, transport and more,” says Poyin.
Thai government must act
Unemployment among new graduates is likely to remain a big issue in the Thai labour market for a while. The government has prepared to deal with this problem by coming up with long-term measures to continuously solve the problem along with developing labour quality. For example, the government’s co-payment project provides wage support of up to 50% for employers who hire new graduates in the form of a one-year temporary contract.
It would not help if the government’s policy only benefits a specific group of people.
To help first jobbers deal with the multiple challenges they face, there is an urgent need for the Thai government to come up with a series of measures that would alleviate their stress.
