Labor
Thailand's labor force was estimated at 36.9 million in 2007. About 49% were employed in agriculture, 37% in services, and 14% in industry. In 2005 women constituted 48 percent of the labor force and held an increasing share of professional jobs. Less than 4% of the workforce is unionized, but 11% of industrial workers and 50% of state enterprise employees are unionized.
Although laws applying to private-sector workers' rights to form and join trade unions were unaffected by 19 September 2006, military coup and its aftermath, workers who participate in union activities continue to have inadequate legal protection. According to the U.S. Department of State, union workers are inadequately protected. Thailand's unemployment rate lies at 1.5% percent of the labor force.
Read more about this topic: Economy Of Thailand
Famous quotes containing the word labor:
“In a virtuous government, and more especially in times like these, public offices are, what the should be, burthens to those appointed to them which it would be wrong to decline, though foreseen to bring with them intense labor and great private loss.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“There is virtue yet in the hoe and the spade, for learned as well as for unlearned hands. And labor is everywhere welcome; always we are invited to work.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the labor interests, and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”
—Administration in the State of Neva, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)