Job situation better than expected

There are positive trends in employment, health and social issues in Thailand in the second quarter, the National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) said yesterday.

The number of jobless people is now at 670,000, 1.8 per cent lower than the estimate of 2.5 per cent, or around one million people, said NESDB deputy secretarygeneral  Suwannee Khamman, who said the overall unemployment rate should be no more than 2 per cent by this year's end.

The number of beneficiaries under all government social security schemes who receive unemployment funds is 69,291 - also lower than an earlier estimate.

On the health issue, the number of mosquitoborne chikungunya disease cases reached 21,357, or a 58percent increase compared to the first quarter, while the 2009 influenza has sickened 14,976 people and killed 119 others as of August.

On crime, the number of reported criminal cases has decreased in general, with youth found less involved, both in general crimes and drugrelated offences. However, the stonethrowing trend is worrying and should be tackled through strict law enforcement, she concluded.

The number of cases of crimes relating to property has increased by 8.1 per cent, while those involving murders, assaults and rapes are up 3.2 per cent. Drugrelated cases number 57,156, a 1.1percent decrease compared to the same period last year. Cases of crimes committed by minors has dropped by 7.3 per cent, or 6,940 cases, with drugrelated offences topping the list.

Strict law enforcement and sufficient police patrols are measures proposed as tools to tackle stonethrowing, which was committed by minors (44 per cent) and adults (47 per cent). All suspects arrested said they did it as "copycats" and "just for fun".

This tendency is growing even more worrying as attackers now use catapults to fire various objects such as missiles, including deadlier bolts and nuts, while turning to target trains and public buses, which carry much larger numbers of commuters, in addition to sedans and pickup trucks.

Socalled "green projects" and similar awareness activities are working well following campaigns: the general energy austerity campaign, forestation projects, use of cloth bags in place of plastic bags, the use of alternative powers and energy sources, recycling and garbagesorting projects.

Urban people are still in hot pur¬suit of new IT products and technology trends. In a recent poll, 30 per cent of respondents said they changed new computers and mobile phones just to be "in trend". The number of home video set and mobilephone users has increased six times from 2000 to 2008.

About 31 million people own or use mobile phones (52.8 per cent) and 16 million of them own or use personal or notebook computers (28.2 per cent). The government needs to expand channels to deal with "egarbage" - discarded computers and other electronic devices - and boost awareness to the public over the hazards of electronic junk, she said.