Unemployment rate reaches 20 pct in Cambodia: Economists

Economists in Cambodia expressed their concern over declining rate of employment in Cambodia, and that fear coincided with the claim that approximately 300,000 Cambodian adults do not have jobs, local newspaper Business Press reported on Monday.

Sok Sina, a researcher from the Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI) said that the number of jobless people has increased from 10 to 20 percent and that people who have jobs mainly live in cities, while most people in rural areas have remained jobless.

He added that farmers cannot farm the entire year and that 12 percent of Cambodia's youth aged from 10 to 24 years old are unemployed.

Neak Samsan, a research official from the Economic Institute of Cambodia, said that in 2005 thousands of university graduates were jobless and every year thousands more who complete their education are unable to find jobs.

In 2004 the number of unemployed people was 0.8 percent. "Apart from local enterprises and markets, Cambodian laborers are sent to Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan," he added.

Source: Xinhua