Page 7 - AEI Insights 2020 - Vol. 6, Issue 1

Furuoka et al, 2020

between labour supply and demand. If labour supply is largely greater than labour demand,
there would be a higher unemployment rate. The unemployment rates in ASEAN countries for
the period of 1995 to 2017 are depicted in Figure 1 and the main indicators of unemployment
are reported in Table 1. As Figure 1 clearly indicates, two ASEAN countries, namely Brunei
2
and Indonesia, suffered from high unemployment problem. The average unemployment rate
in Brunei was 6.3 percent between 1995 and 2017. The country’s unemployment rates are were
around 5 percent from 1995 to 2008. Its unemployment rate jumped up from 6.8 percent in
2012 to 7.7 percent in 2015 and increased further to 9.3 percent in 2017. Indonesia’s
unemployment rate increased from 3.9 percent in 1995 to 5.4 percent in 1998 and increased
further to 6.0 percent in 2000. The unemployment rate declined further to 7.9 percent in 2005.
The labour market condition in Indonesia showed some improvement after 2010. Its
unemployment rate decreased from 5.6 percent in 2010 to 4.3 percent in 2013, and further to
4.1 percent in 2017. Among the ASEAN countries, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore have
moderate unemployment rates and their average unemployment rates are around 3 percent.
Malaysia’s unemployment rate increased slightly from 3.1 percent in 1995 to 3.4 percent in
1999 and increased further to 3.6 percent in 2004. Its unemployment rate increased again from
3.0 percent in 2012 to 3.1 percent in 2015, increased slightly to 3.4 percent in 2017. By contrast,
the unemployment rate in the Philippines decreased from 4.0 percent in 2007 to 3.6 percent in
2010 and declined further to 2.5 percent in 2017. Similarly, Singapore’s unemployment rate
decreased from 5.8 percent in 2009, to 4.1 percent in 2010, before settling at 3.9 percent in
2017. It is interesting to note that unemployment rates in five countries in mainland Southeast
Asia are lower than in the other ASEAN countries. The average unemployment rate in these
countries are lower than 2 percent. The unemployment rate in Cambodia decreased from 1.5
percent in 2005 to 1.3 percent in 2009, and further to 1.0 percent in 2017. In Lao, its
unemployment rate was constantly lower than 1 percent in the 2010s. In the case of Myanmar,
its unemployment rate slightly increased from 0.9 percent in 2010 to 1.1 percent in 2016 and
rose further to 1.5 percent in 2017. Thailand’s unemployment rate decreased from 2.6 percent
in 2001 to 1.0 percent in 2009 and decreased further to 0.6 percent in 2017. In the case of
Vietnam, its unemployment rate decreased from 2.7 percent in 2001 to 2.3 percent in 2008 and
declined further to 1.8 percent in 2017.

9 10
8
7 8
6
6
5
4
4
3
2
2
1
0
96 98 00 02 04 06 08 10 12 14 16 0
96 98 00 02 04 06 08 10 12 14 16
Indonesia Malaysia
Philippines Singapore Brunei Cambodia Lao
Thailand Myanmar Vietnam
Figure 1: Unemployment rates in ASEAN

2 The quality of data on unemployment rate in the ASEAN countries could be questionable. Firstly, unemployment
rate could be under-estimated, especially some new member states, such as Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.
Secondly, there are no standard measurement for unemployment rate among the ASEAN countries. Thus,
International Labour Organization (2019) recently reported the problems of measurement for unemployment rates.

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