The unemployment rate rose 0.22 percentage points to 4.28 percent last month, with the number of people out of work increasing by 22,000 to 441,000, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said in a statement yesterday.
The latest figure is the highest monthly unemployment rate since last October, when it was 4.31 percent.
Liu Beei-chern (
Unemployment also rose as the number of temporary job opportunities declined after the New Year holiday, with the nation's economy not expected to grow at the same robust pace as last year, Liu told reporters at a press conference yesterday.
After seasonal adjustments, the unemployment rate was 4.29 percent last month, up 0.1 percentage point from January, but down 0.41 percentage point from the previous year, the agency said.
Last month's figure of 4.28 percent compared favorably to Germany's unemployment rate of 12.6 percent, France's 10 percent, Canada's 7 percent, Hong Kong's 6.1 percent, the US' 5.4 percent and Japan's 4.5 percent, the agency said.
Singapore, however, had a jobless rate of 3.7 percent, South Korea's was 3.6 percent and the UK's was 2.9 percent.
According the agency, the workforce shrunk by 27,000 people, or 0.27 percent, to 9.87 million last month. The labor participation ratio was 57.71 percent, down 0.07 percentage point month-on-month and up 0.33 percentage point year-on-year.
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