BANGKOK, Nov. 27 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's employment growth slowed in the July-September period, reaching the lowest rate in five quarters, dragged down by weak exports, official data showed on Monday.
The southeast Asian country's labor force amounted to 40.1 million individuals in the third quarter of this year, representing a 1.3 percent year-on-year increase, a slowdown from an expansion of 1.7 percent in the previous three months, according to the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC).
The growth was mainly due to an expansion of employment in the agricultural sector, which rose 2.0 percent year-on-year to 12.6 million jobs, the NESDC said in a statement.
For non-farm sectors, employment in hotels and restaurants jumped 8.3 percent from a year earlier, attributed to a nearly double increase in inbound tourists.
Meanwhile, manufacturing employment increased by 0.6 percent in response to production for domestic consumption. However, employment in export-oriented manufacturing dropped amid weak global demand, the statement said.
The kingdom's unemployment rate was registered at 0.99 percent in the third quarter, edging down from 1.06 percent in the April-June period, according to the NESDC. ■
