Thailand has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world, which doesn’t always fit the picture of an emerging-market economy that’s struggling to get growth going. To get a fuller picture of what’s happening in the labor market — as well as in other under-reported industries in the economy, like the property market — the central bank is increasingly turning to “big data” sources drawn from social media and online stores to supplement official figures.
The Bank of Thailand is building its own employment index based on data from online jobs-search portals and is also creating a property indicator to give it a better sense of supply and demand in the housing market.

Thailand has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the world, which doesn’t always fit the picture of an emerging-market economy that’s struggling to get growth going. To get a fuller picture of what’s happening in the labor market — as well as in other under-reported industries in the economy, like the property market — the central bank is increasingly turning to “big data” sources drawn from social media and online stores to supplement official figures.
The Bank of Thailand is building its own employment index based on data from online jobs-search portals and is also creating a property indicator to give it a better sense of supply and demand in the housing market.