The number of employees forced to take unpaid leave had dropped to 79,967 as of yesterday, two thirds down from the peak of 238,000 people in March, Council of Labor Affairs Minister Jennifer Wang (王如玄) told a business group gathering yesterday.
“We believe the nation’s unpaid leave crisis is near the end,” Wang said, adding that rush orders from China had stabilized and become short-term orders for local manufacturers.
Wang said the unpaid leave situation should show further improvement next quarter once the local economy turns around.
To address rising unemployment, which stood at 5.8 percent in May, Wang said the council had provided job matching services and on-the-job training as well as subsidies to unemployed workers to bolster the social safety net. It also encouraged local companies to hire local talent rather than migrant workers, although each local worker costs on average NT$10,000 more than a migrant worker.
As a result of the economic downturn, the nation’s number of migrant workers dropped to 169,000 in June from 206,000 in October, she said, adding that the council would provide measures to revamp and tighten the nation’s migrant worker policy.
But Kinpo Group (金仁寶集團) chairman Rock Hsu (許勝雄), also a vice chairman at the Chinese National Federation of Industries (工業總會), said he opposed tightening the policy on migrant workers.
“In the long run, the nation should relax the policy to ensure that the local manufacturing sector remains competitive,” he said. “In the short term, businesses are willing to support the government’s plan to address the unemployment situation by hiring local talent.”
Wang said the unemployment rate would “rise” this summer as college graduates enter the job market.
On Tuesday, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said unemployment was likely to move above 6 percent this month, before bottoming out after September.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS