Page 69 - AEI Insights Vol. 7 2021

Jingyi et al, 2021

higher than LFPR at the basic education level in Brunei (52.8). There is an outlier in this
negative relationship, namely Lao PDR (42.3). This country has a relatively lower income level
with a lower level of LFPR at the basic education level. Secondly, there is no clear linkage
between income level and LFPR at the intermediate education level. For example, some
relatively poor countries tend to have higher LFPR at the intermediate education level, such as
Cambodia (86.1) and Vietnam (76.6). At the same time, other relatively poor countries have
lower LFPR at the intermediate education level, Myanmar (45.8) and Lao (48.0). Finally, most
interestingly, there is a positive relationship between income per capita and LFPR at the
advanced education level. It would imply that countries with relatively higher income level
would tend to have a higher LFPR at the advanced education level. For example, LFPR at
advanced education level in Brunei (81.9) is higher than LFPR at advanced education level at
Lao PDR (75.2) and Cambodia (79.6).

Intermediate education
Basic Education 90
90
KHM
80 KHM 80
VNM VNM
PHL
70 IDN THA
70 THA MYS MYS
LFPR MMR IDN LFPR BRN
PHL
60 60
BRN
50 50
LAO
MMR
LAO
40 40
0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000
Income (US$) Income (US$)
gdp per capita gdp per capita

Advanced level
90
VNM
85
THA
IDN BRN
80 KHM
LFPR 75 LAO

70
MYS
MMR
65
PHL
60
0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000
Income (US$)
gdp per capita
Figure 3: Labour force participation rate by education levels and income level

Table 5 reports four types of the unemployment rate, namely the total unemployment rate, the
male unemployment rate, the female unemployment rate and the unemployment gap. The
unemployment gap is the difference between male and female unemployment rate. Firstly, the
average unemployment rate in ASEAN countries is 3.6. By contrast, there are three countries
with the relatively higher total unemployment rate which are higher than 9.0, namely Brunei
(9.3) and Laos (9.4). By contrast, there are three countries with the relatively lower male
unemployment rate which are less than 1.0, namely Cambodia (0.7), Thailand (0.4) and

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