The unemployment rate last month rose to its highest level since August last year, as employers offered fewer job openings and more college graduates entered the labor market butfailed to get an offer, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The unemployment rate — a lagging indicator of economic performance — climbed for the third consecutive month to 4.31 percent last month, from 4.21 percent in June, the agency said in its monthly report.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate, which he said was a more reliable indicator of the long-term trend, was up 0.01 percentage points from the previous month to 4.25 percent last month, the report said.
“More school-leavers entered the job market last month, further pushing up the number of first-time jobseekers failing to find a job,” DGBAS deputy director Chen Min (陳憫) told a press conference.
The latest data showed that 490,000 people were unemployed last month, an increase of 13,000 from the previous month, with the number of first-time jobseekers failing to get a job rising by 11,000.
The increase was also reflected in the growing youth unemployment rate, with joblessness among 15-to-24-year-olds rising to 12.96 percent last month, up from 12.36 percent in June and 12.91 percent during the same period last year, the report showed.
Chen said the jobless rate may continue to show a rising trend this month on the same seasonal effect, which may boost the number of first-time jobseekers failing to get a job.
Weak sentiment about the economy would be the other major factor dragging down local employers’ hiring demand and further affecting the labor market in the near future, DGBAS said.
The number of employed people was 10.88 million last month, up 1.21 percent from a year earlier, marking the lowest comparative month-on-month rise in the past two years, which indicated the conservative attitude of employers generating new positions, the agency said.
Henry Ho (何啟聖), a public relations director at 1111 Job Bank (1111人力銀行), also said the continuous downturn trend in the nation’s export orders indicated employers may decrease the number of job openings, further affecting the labor market.
DGBAS also unveiled the latest salary data yesterday, which showed that national monthly salaries averaged NT$37,276 (US$1,240) in the first half of this year, up 1.88 percent from a year ago.
However, when bonuses and other forms of compensation are included, the average monthly remuneration package showed a 0.24 percent markdown from a year earlier to stand at NT$48,829 in the first six months.
This reflected employers awarding lower year-end bonuses and other vocational rewards this year because the global economic slowdown is impacting their businesses, DGBAS said.
In addition, after adjusting for inflation — which climbed 1.47 percent year-on-year in the first six months — real wages fell a further 1.68 percent from a year earlier, data showed.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS