Taiwan's unemployment rate rose to 5.11 percent in June from 5.02 percent in May, with a total of 509,000 people out of work, the government's statisticians said yesterday.
But the jobless rate could reach record levels in the coming months because more than 16,000 college graduates will leave school and join the employee market this month, said Chen Jin-cherng (
"The jobless rate is likely to break last year's [October] record of 5.33 percent, with the graduation season coming up in the next three months," Chen said.
While 509,000 people are currently out of jobs, this figure will be boosted when an expected 30,000 college graduates enter the employee market in the next two months, Chen said.
However, seeing that 3,000 more employees found jobs in June compared to the previous month, the nation's manufacturing sector seems to be reviving, having created a total of 6,000 jobs in one month -- 4,000 of which are with electronics manufacturers, Chen said.
Moreover, as 10,000 less jobs are being lost every month from factory closures, Chen estimated this year's jobless rate may hover at between 5.01 percent and 5.1 percent.
While DGBAS is claiming a higher jobless figure for first-time job seekers, Wayne Shiah (夏瑋), spokesman at 1111 Job Bank (1111人力銀行), an online job-search firm, yesterday held a different point of view.
Shiah said that, according to the company's database, there will be an average of six to seven job offers for each graduate with an information technology-related major while graduates with non IT-related majors will get only 0.6 job opportunities per applicant.
"Many high-tech and semiconductor-making firms are hiring college graduates because of their loyalty to companies," Shiah said.
He therefore estimated that 50 percent of this year's graduates should be able to land jobs within three months after graduation while 90 percent of them will be able to start working within six months.
He said that it took an average of seven months for last year's college graduates to locate jobs.
Although local economists all look forward to a mild recovery in the second half of the year, the DGBAS's Chen said that the expected recovery is not clear enough yet and may not translate into more jobs because the US economy and currency hasn't been performing well.
DGBAS also said in yesterday's report that the jobless rate of two additional counties -- Chiayi and Tainan -- has climbed above five percent, in addition to last month's total of 12 counties and cities where this was the case.
Central Taiwan has the highest jobless rate of 5.31 percent, compared to 4.96 percent in northern Taiwan, 5.16 percent in southern Taiwan and 5.26 percent in eastern Taiwan.
The past few months' water-rationing policies may have forced some businesses to shut down in central Changhwa County and Taichung City, where more people are entering the job market, the DGBAS said.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is