Bolstered by large-scale hiring in the service sector, the nation's unemployment rate dropped 0.13 percentage points to 4.15 percent last month from February, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics announced yesterday.
A total of 428,000 people were out of work last month, a decline of 13,000 from February.
After seasonal adjustments, the unemployment rate was 4.21 percent, down 0.08 percentage points from the previous month, according to a statement released by the agency.
The service sector, which hired 9,000 people last month, or 0.16 percent of the total work force, contributed to the reduction in the jobless rate, while the agricultural and industrial sectors respectively cut 4,000 and 2,000 jobs, the statement said.
"Job openings in the service industry, as well as banking, wholesale and retail businesses, have been at a high level with various new products and services continually entering the market," Monica Chiu (
Currently, there are over 260,000 positions posted on the job bank's Web site, and the demand is expected to last through the second quarter of the year, Chiu said.
The unemployment rate is traditionally higher from June until August, when college graduates enter the job market.
But Chiu said that the figure is not expected to rise that much this year, as there are enough jobs available for first-time job seekers.
The job bank's Web site currently has 130,000 vacancies for first-time job seekers, including entry-level sales or marketing jobs, she said.
Asked whether the new Laborers' Pension Law (勞工退休條例) will have an impact on the job market, Chiu said she doesn't think the law will result in significant personnel downsizing of companies.
The law is slated to be implemented on July 1, and will require employers to direct more money to employees' pension funds.
To save costs after the new pension law comes into effect, most companies will seek to cut benefits or curtail promotions instead of laying off employees, she said.
According to the statistics agency, people that quit because they were dissatisfied with their jobs comprised the largest grouping among those who were unemployed last month, showing an increase of 9,000 people from February. The number of people whose temporary jobs were terminated increased by 6,000.
In addition to reducing their personnel budgets, Chiu said companies are tending toward outsourcing part of their operations to save costs, a trend that is getting more significant as the implementation of the new pension law draws nearer.
A recent survey by the job bank showed that 27 percent of enterprises are mulling the adoption of an outsourcing strategy after July 1, while the outsourcing cases offered on the job bank this month grew by 25 percent from a year ago.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”