Just 0.56%. That's Thailand's official unemployment rate as of the end of 2014. It's among the lowest in the world, and compares regionally with 9.4% in India and 6% in the Philippines.
Sugar-cane farmers in Chon Buri province are among the more than 40% of Thailand's population engaged in agriculture, where there is a high degree of underemployment and off-season unemployment. Nonetheless, they are counted as employed. (photo by Patipat Janthong)
This is not a recent phenomenon: Thailand's jobless rate has held below 1% for the most part since 2011. The record high was 5.73% in January 2001, when the National Statistical Office first began releasing the data every month. How did it get so low?