The overall labour situation began to recover from the impact of Covid-19 in the final quarter of 2021, with the unemployment rate dropping to the lowest since the second quarter of 2020, while household debt still increased but at a slower pace.
The government's planning unit, the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC), reported yesterday the unemployment rate dropped to 1.64% in the fourth quarter of 2021, representing 632,000 people, from 2.25% or 871,000 people in the previous quarter.
Jinanggoon Rojananan, NESDC deputy secretary-general, attributed the drop mainly to a decrease in the number of unemployed persons who worked before in the labour-intensive manufacturing sector which was particularly hard hit by the Covid-19 outbreaks.
