This study explores occupational and earnings dynamics of rural non-farm economy (RNFE) in Thailand. Using occupational transition matrices, we finds significant occupational transitions in rural Thailand, mainly involving moving to non-farm employment, rather than starting businesses. Moreover, results from conditional micro mobility regressions show that transitions into the RNFE are associated with statistically significant earnings gains while transitions into farming are associated with earnings losses. The cumulative distribution of income indicates that non-farm employers’ earnings distribution stochastically dominates the others, signaling an occupational ladder. However, only a small number of individuals become non-farm employers, reflecting the difficulty involved in starting, expanding or even keeping a rural non-farm business.