Unemployment Videos

Song 1: Mockingbird - Eminem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OthLwh5Gtvw

Song 2: Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? - Bing Crosby, Yip Harburg, and Jay Gorney
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eih67rlGNhU

Song 3: If We Make It Through December - Merle Haggard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-IJxTd8dCo

My primary song choice for this blog is Eminem's "Mockingbird". Mockingbird has been one of my favorite songs since my childhood, but after recently rereading the lyrics, I only recently recognized the references it has to unemployment. Low unemployment is perhaps the most important macroeconomic goal, since a long period of high unemployment leads to several dire consequences, other than those that are just purely based on economic theory. There are few things more soul-crushing than an utter sense of worthlessness, which stems frequently from feeling like one has no contribution to make to society or anything that they've achieved in life. Rampant unemployment can easily cause previously well-off families to lose all their savings, or their standard of life, and unemployment that lasts for too long often forces families to sell off houses, cars, and other absolutely essential requirements for functioning in society. At that point, even a recovery period makes it impossible to get a job or comeback from the devastation, and this leads to higher suicide and crime rates.

Some of the lyrics in Mockingbird that I felt had a connection to unemployment were "I'm trying to give you the life that I never had", "Daddy's always on the move", but this entire passage was very heartbreaking and significantly referenced the struggles of unemployment:

"I remember back one year when daddy had no money
Mommy wrapped the Christmas presents up
And stuck 'em under the tree and said some of 'em were from me
Cause daddy couldn't buy 'em
I'll never forget that Christmas I sat up the whole night crying
Cause daddy felt like a bum, see daddy had a job
But his job was to keep the food on the table for you and mom."

Unemployment Rate in Thailand

How does the government define and calculate the unemployment rate?

The unemployment rate is typically defined as the percentage of the active working force currently out of a job and seeking one. The Thai government essentially follows this definition, and their unemployment statistics are calculated by the Labor Force Survey (LFS).

Give some statistics on the unemployment rates for different regions, age groups, ethnic groups and gender in Thailand.

While Thailand has a total population of 67 million, it's labor force is roughly 40 million. Thailand actually has the FOURTH lowest unemployment rates in the world at 1%. Here is a breakdown by different categories, as well as a chart depicting Thailand's unemployment rates from 1986:

agriculture: 38.2%

industry: 13.6%

services: 48.2%

Female Unemployment rate: 0.60%

Male Unemployment rate: 0.60%

North: 0.48%

South: 0.53%

Central: 0.85% 

Bangkok: 0.26%

Northeast: 0.93%

How extensive are the labour market regulations in Thailand (e.g. minimum wage, job security, safety standards, length of workday/week/month and paid holidays)

Thailand is a developing nation, and there is still a lot of child labor that goes on in low income regions, especially industrial, factory-abundant areas. Despite it's relative lack of prosperity, however, Thailand has fairly generous labor standards. There is compensation for sick, pregnant, and young workers, and children under the age of 15 are not allowed to work. A minimum wage exists, around 300 baht (~10 USD) per day, and work hours cannot officially exceed 8 per day.

What does the government do to reduce the level of unemployment? Can you identify which policies are interventionist or market oriented?

The government has enacted various policies since the late 1900's to combat unemployment in Thailand. Most significantly, the Thai government has started several market-based programs to increase the quality and quantity of their workforce, providing cheap, accessible education in low income regions and ensuring quality public education for all. They've attempted to subsidize struggling farmers with interventionist policies like the infamous "rice scheme". Another example is using the military to improve the quality of infrastructure throughout Thailand (market based).

Business Cycle

This image shows us an excellent example of a typical business cycle. As time goes on, the level of output in an economy fluctuates between two constantly evolving extremes: the boom and the bust. While the oscillation is constant, the economy (in most cases) is still ever growing. Even if there's a temporary recession (the downward decrease in growth from a boom),  the economy eventually recovers (period of increased economic growth from a bust), and reaches an even higher boom. As this cycle goes on, with ever increasing peaks, the long term trendline is one of constant growth, usually slightly below potential output (unless the economy is undergoing a phenomenon like an inflationary gap).

Circular Flow of Income

As we can see from the above diagram, the flow of income throughout an economy travels through four primary routes. Households and individuals supply businesses with the factors of production to create goods and services, and in return those businesses supply the goods and services. To pay for these goods and services, consumers use money and spend money; this expenditure is used to fund the businesses' production costs. To repay individuals and households for their labor and factors of production, businesses provide income in the form of wages, rent, profit, and interest in the fourth and final route. And thus, income flows from the households and businesses in an economy in a complete, repetitive cycle.