Page 70 - AEI Insights Vol. 7 2021

AEI Insights, Vol 7, Issue 1, 2021

Myanmar (0.8). Interestingly, these countries also have relatively lower inflation rates, namely
Cambodia (2.4), Thailand (0.7) and Myanmar (2.8). Secondly, the average level of male
unemployment rate is also 3.6. There are two countries with the relatively higher male
unemployment rate which are greater than 8.0, namely Lao (10.7) and Brunei (8.7). On the
other hand, there are three countries with the relatively lower male unemployment rate which
are less than 1.0, namely Cambodia (0.5), Thailand (0.5) and Myanmar (0.7). Thirdly, the
average level of female unemployment rate in ASEAN countries is 3.7. There are two countries
with relatively higher female unemployment rate which are greater than 7.0, namely Brunei
(9.9) and Lao PDR (7.8). Also, there are two countries with relatively lower female
unemployment rate which is less than 1.0, namely Thailand (0.4) and Cambodia (0.8). Finally,
the average level of unemployment rate gap in ASEAN countries is -0.1. There are seven
countries with negative unemployment gap, namely Brunei (-1.2), Vietnam (-1.1), Malaysia (-
0.8), the Philippines (-0.5), Singapore (-0.4), Cambodia (-0.3) and Myanmar (-0.3). Also, there
are three countries with positive unemployment gap, namely Thailand (0.1), Lao PDR (2.9)
and Indonesia (0.4).

Table 5: Unemployment rate (total, male, female and gap) (2020)
Unemployment Unemployment Unemployment Unemployment
rate (total) rate (male) rate (female) rate (gap)

Brunei 9.3 8.7 9.9 -1.2
Cambodia 0.7 0.5 0.8 -0.3

Indonesia 4.5 4.6 4.2 0.4
Lao PDR 9.4 10.7 7.8 2.9

Malaysia 3.4 3.1 3.9 -0.8
Myanmar 0.8 0.7 1.0 -0.3

Philippines 2.3 2.1 2.6 -0.5
Singapore 4.2 4.0 4.4 -0.4

Thailand 0.4 0.5 0.4 0.1

Vietnam 1.9 1.8 2.9 -1.1
Average 3.6 3.6 3.7 -0.1

Source: World Bank (2020)

Figure 4 depicts the trend of unemployment rates for the period of 2009-2017 in six ASEAN
countries, namely Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam.
Due to lack of sufficient data, four countries, namely Brunei, Lao PDR, Myanmar and
Thailand, are excluded from this analysis. Firstly, there are two countries with relatively higher
average unemployment during this period, namely Indonesia and Singapore. It is interesting to
note that there is a downward movement of unemployment rates in Indonesia. The country’s
unemployment rate was 6.1 percent in 2009 and decreased to 5.6 percent in 2010, further to

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