Australi Similarities And Differences Between Australia And Thailand

Introduction
Employment refers to an occupation by which a person earns a living (Dictionary.com). Unemployment, however, refers to people without work who are actively seeking work and are currently available for work (ABS). In 2017, Australia’s unemployment rate was 5.6% (CIA) while in Thailand, it was significantly lower at 0.7% (CIA). Thailand and Australia share many similarities and differences relating to employment and unemployment, including employment structure and employment and unemployment trends.

Employment structure
Employment structure refers to the division of a country’s labour force into primary, secondary and tertiary sectors (BBC). Australia has approximately 12.5 million people in its labour force (Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia), with 21.1% in industry, 3.6% in agriculture and 75.3% in the services sector (CIA). With a significantly larger labour force of 38.37 million in Thailand (CIA), approximately 34% works in agriculture, 22% in industry and 43% in the services sector (World Bank). Thus, Australia and Thailand’s employment structures share similarities and differences.
Due to its rapidly growing economy, Thailand is becoming more industrialised, leading to a shift from a heavily agricultural to an industrialised and service-based society (Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia).
Consequently, the number of employees in the agriculture sector is decreasing, with a 6% decrease in agriculture employment since 2013 (Country Reports- Thailand). A government subsidy encouraging rice farming influenced many people to work in agriculture, and its closure also caused an immediate impact on employment distribution, which shifted into other sectors (Country Reports- Thailand). As a result, this has provided other areas of the economy an inflow of
workers.

Similarly, Australia’s labour market is also undergoing change. However, this is due to structural and technological development, leading to changing work patterns with some occupations disappearing or made easier (AMP.NATSEM). This has caused Australia to transition from an agricultural and manufacturing-based economy to a service-based economy (AMP.NATSEM), like Thailand. The Australian labour market is also affected by factors different to those in Thailand, such as the mining boom, which has caused an increase in investments and exports, leading to increased and discretionary incomes and therefore increased spending, which has positively affected growth in the services sector (Lowe, P). Therefore, although both Thailand’s and Australia’s employment structures are in positive positions and are growing into the industry and services sector, they are caused by different factors and have had different effects, with Australia already much further developed into the industry and services sector than Thailand.

Employment and unemployment trends
Over the past three years, unemployment in Australia has been fluctuating around the 6% mark but has decreased (Australian Economics and Statistics) to a 4-year low and is forecast to move closer to 5% in 2018 (Hutchens, G.). This is partly caused by the 26 years Australia has had without a recession as well as continuing GDP growth (Australian Economics and Statistics), which has positively impacted job growth. The government’s National Disability Insurance Scheme has also created an increase in health jobs (Hutchens, G.). Services sectors such as health, education, tourism and transport had a job surge of 400000 in 2017 and another 250000 jobs are expected to be created in 2018 (Hutchens, G.). However, although there has been an increase in work, changes in the workforce such as automation and technological innovation has consequently led to job redundancies and uncertainty, though this has not impacted employment trends significantly (CEDA).

Thailand has a notably lower unemployment rate of 0.7% compared to Australia, which is expected to decrease even further, similarly to Australia. However, it is due to much different factors such as demographic structural challenges (Country Reports- Thailand). A rapidly aging population and a low population growth rate is decreasing and constraining the growth in Thailand’s labour force, consequently leading to declines in the number of people in the labour force, and therefore low unemployment rates in the future (Country Reports- Thailand).

As can be seen, both Thailand and Australia are experiencing a decrease in the unemployment rate and are equally forecast to experience ongoing declines in unemployment. However, the factors causing declines in unemployment are different. Australia’s declining unemployment is due to the creation of new jobs which is good for the economy, whereas Thailand is experiencing a low number of workers available to perform their jobs, which will not have a completely positive implication on its economy as it may have to import labour. Thus, both countries are experiencing declining unemployment but for different reasons and will have different effects.

Conclusion
There are many similarities and differences in employment and unemployment between the Thailand and Australian economy including employment and unemployment trends, in which both countries are experiencing declining unemployment rates, and employment structures. Employment structures will change in the future, with manual labour decreasing and services jobs increasing in both countries.