Taiwan's unemployment rate in October dropped to 4.07 percent from 4.14 percent in September because of a decline in first-time job seekers, the government's statistics agency said yesterday.
The October figure was the lowest in five years, down from 4.31 percent a year earlier, and 4.92 percent in 2003, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said in a report.
The October unemployment rate of 4.07 percent was comparatively lower than Germany's 11 percent, France's 9.8 percent, Canada's 6.6 percent, Hong Kong's 5.3 percent, the US' 5.0 percent and Japan's 4.2 percent, but higher than Korea's 3.9 percent and Singapore's 3.3 percent.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, unemployment stood at 4.00 percent, down 0.01 percentage points from a month earlier and down 0.21 percentage points from the same period last year, it said.
Based on past patterns, the jobless rate is expected to fall further in November and December, as more graduates find jobs and other workers are unlikely to leave jobs before the payment of year-end bonuses, said Liu Bei-chern (劉北辰), the deputy director of the DGBAS' census bureau.
"The jobless rate for the remaining two months has the chance to fall below 4 percent," Liu said, adding the full-year jobless rate for this year will likely be around 4 percent.
Unemployment in the 10 months to October averaged 4.17 percent, down 0.33 percent from a year earlier, he added.
The statistics agency said 424,000 people were out of work during October, a decrease of 6,000 from September.
Some 5,000 people became unemployed in October after leaving jobs because of dissatisfaction while the number of first-time job seekers fell 12,000 during the month.
The eligible workforce in October was 10.41 million.
Low unemployment may make households more inclined to spend, helping President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) government achieve its 4 percent economic-growth target for this year. Credit Suisse First Boston predicts consumer spending in Taiwan will rise more than 4 percent next year after a projected gain of 3.5 percent this year.
The DGBAS last week revised its economic forecast upward for the year to 3.8 percent from 3.65 percent in August, citing robust exports.
RSS