The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted both the economy and society. The Bank of Thailand predicts that Thailand's GDP will likely decline by 8.1% this year.

Unemployment rates have surged to 8-12 times higher, reaching the highest levels in 20 years, presenting an unprecedented challenge. One of the most concerning groups is the youth, particularly recent graduates, students, and disadvantaged children, who are at risk of dropping out of the education system and are likely to fall deeper into poverty.

The National Economic and Social Development Council states that the impact of COVID-19 will push the unemployment rate to 3-4%, up from an average of 1%. This indicates that young workers will face more severe unemployment issues than other groups, as youth already have an unemployment rate of up to 5% or nearly five times that of adult workers, due to a significant contraction in job positions resulting from COVID-19, which is insufficient to accommodate this year's new graduates. Additionally, there are over 500,000 accumulated unemployed from previous years, and this number is expected to continue rising until the economy returns to normal.

  • The COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated the NEET youth issue.

Unemployed youth and those outside the education system, or the NEET (Youth Not in Education, Employment, or Training) group, as defined by the International Labour Organization (ILO), refers to youth aged 15-24 who are not in education, employment, or training. This issue is still not widely discussed in Thai society, according to surveys on the employment situation of the Thai population.

The NEET group consists of youth who are 1. doing household work, 2. idle or resting, 3. too young, sick, or disabled to work, and 4. unemployed. In 2019, Thailand had as many as 1.3 million NEET individuals, accounting for 14% of Thai youth, with an average annual growth rate of 1% contrary to the average decline of 1.2% in the youth population over the past decade.

Neglect from the education and employment systems is partly due to the Thai education system not accommodating slow learners and those with learning disabilities, causing some children to drop out of the education system. Online learning poses a new barrier for these children. Additionally, labor protection laws state that youth under 18 years old are prohibited from certain jobs but do not clearly specify what positions employers can hire youth for, leading employers to often avoid hiring young people.

Moreover, it is found that 65% of the NEET group are female, and teenage pregnancy is a significant cause. Statistics show that 80% of the NEET group are females doing household work, with over half being married and having only completed secondary education. This aligns with a survey on the situation of children and women in Thailand conducted by the National Statistical Office in collaboration with UNICEF Thailand in 2015-2016, which found that 88% of female students dropped out due to pregnancy during secondary school.

  • Current measures to address the NEET issue may still be insufficient.

Currently, various projects from different agencies that help alleviate the NEET issue, such as the Educational Equity Fund (กสศ.), have developed an information system for equitable education (iSEE), which is a large database covering over 4 million underprivileged and disadvantaged children and youth.

The Youth Nation Building project and other sub-projects by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research, and Innovation also contribute to solving the problem by employing students currently studying, accommodating over 50,000 unemployed graduates since late 2019, and plans to expand employment opportunities by an additional 200,000 to 300,000 positions from economic recovery budgets.

Despite various projects to alleviate the problem, they cannot cover the over one million NEET individuals. Therefore, the government must allocate more resources to ensure that youth receive comprehensive support to create equal educational opportunities and prevent them from being trapped in poverty. It is essential for all parties to work together to enhance the potential of youth to be ready for work and become quality resources for the country.

Thus, to achieve tangible youth development, the government must establish a joint task force with the public and private sectors to study solutions to these issues, including social protection measures to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19. If left unaddressed, this will lead to a worsening problem, with the number of NEET youth increasing or, in the worst-case scenario, becoming a long-term social issue.

[This article has been developed from the research project “Youth Employability Scoping Study” supported by UNICEF Thailand]

SOURCE: www.bangkokbiznews.com