Youth Unemployment: A Challenge for Thailand

I, like other concerned Thai citizens, have a big worry ---- I am worried about the many problems our teens or youths are facing. One of the problems is that many of them are not employed. So many of them have been ignored by Thai society. Many of them have turned their attention to nonsensical activitis such as dare-devil racing at night, prostitution, and drugs. ithout job security, they often waste their energy and enthusism doing something else. Moreover, they are often preyed upon by unscrupulous operators and traders of human misery.

On this blog, I argue that youth unemployemt is a big problem Thailand is facing and this has resulted in many social problems related to Thai teenagers. I suggest the Thai government do something about it. Education is not the silver bullet, a magic spell that cal solve this problem. I also argue that one of the best ways to deal with youth problems is to create suitable jobs for them.

In the Thai context, youth or เยาวชน in Thai refers to persons who are between 14-18 yeras old. For the UN, the youth refers to those who are between 15-25 yeras old.

I remember a Thai saying 'The children today are the adults of tomorrow. We all agree with this. Any civilized society would spend a great deal of energy and resources on children and youth development.

The importance of youth employment has been stated on the website of the international labor organization or ILO.

Many young people are in education or employed in decent jobs… Unfortunately, there are also too many young workers who do not have access to decent work. A significant number of youth are underemployed, unemployed, seeking employment or between jobs, or working unacceptably long hours under informal, intermittent and insecure work arrangements…

On the same website, the potential problems resulting from the high figure of youth umemployment has also been mentioned as follows:

It is....

Youth unemployment and underemployment impose heavy social and economic costs, resulting in the loss of opportunities for economic growth… and unutilized
investment in education and training...

Below are some of the common youth problems Thai society is facing:

1. Young people believe that sex before marriage is acceptable and allows couples to get to know each other before they live together, according to a survey by Suan Dusit Poll. (January 2003)

2. More secondary school and university students have joined the flesh trade during the long summer school holidays, a university lecturer has found in a survey.

3. Director of the Education Ministry's Student Patrol Division, Nikhom Jarumanee, yesterday cited police records as showing that about 30 soccer bookmakers were arrested in different areas across Bangkok during recent European tournaments and many of their customers were found to be students

A message on youth delivered from the UN on 12 August 2009, the International Youth Day, has pointed out that the mojority of persons who were unemployed were the youth.

Our world faces multiple, interconnected crises with severe and far-reaching
impacts that fall disproportionately on the young. In 2007, for example, youth
comprised 25 per cent of the world’s working age population yet accounted for 40
per cent of the unemployed. The global economic downturn means that, in the near term, youth unemployment will continue to climb. Unemployment rates tell only part of the story, especially for the vast majority of youth who live in developing countries. For them, informal, insecure and low-wage employment is the norm, not the exception.

1. The estimated population of Thailand, according to the UN, is 64 million of which approximately 9.3 million live in Bangkok and its vicinities.
2. The fact that the present government (Abhisit 1) has put more emphasis on developing Thai citizens as a whole is a welcoming sign. But there are more things to be done.
   
   
   Thai youths are our future. they are not just a factor for production. They are our assets.

References

United Nations Thailand Available at http://www.un.or.th/thailand/population.html

More students joining the flesh trade Published on Mar 29, 2002 The Nation

WORLD CUP GAMBLING Published on Mar 29, 2002 The Nation

Resource Guide on Youth Employment Available online at: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/support/lib/resource/subject/youth.htm

SUSTAINABILITY: OUr Challenge. Our Future. From http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unyin/iyouthday.htm