The unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in five-and-a-half-years last month, as more first-time jobseekers landed jobs, which helped lift the number of the employed, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The jobless rate improved to 4.02 percent last month, down 0.06 percentage points from 4.08 percent in December last year, DGBAS said in its monthly report.
That is the lowest level since June 2008.
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate also dropped 0.07 percentage points to 4.14 percent last month from 4.21 percent in December, the report said.
“The unemployment rate has improved to the level before the global financial crisis struck the nation’s economy and labor market in late 2008,” DGBAS Deputy Director Lo Yi-ling (羅怡玲) told a press conference in Taipei.
There were 462,000 people unemployed last month, a drop of 7,000 from the previous month, the report’s data showed.
The number of first-time jobseekers who failed to get an offer declined by 6,000 last month from December last year, reflecting a recent improvement in the youth market.
The jobless rate for the 15-to-24 age group decreased to 12.69 percent last month, from 13.1 percent the previous month, a fifth straight month of decline, the agency’s statistics showed.
However, there was only a slight rise in the number of employed last month — to 11.04 million — up 7,000 from a month earlier, as the economy’s soft expansion could not provide strong enough momentum for the job market, Lo added.
The number of the unemployed may increase this month given historical trends, as many people looking to change jobs quit before the Lunar New Year holiday, he said.
The agency said real monthly salaries averaged NT$44,739 last year after taking inflation into account, less than the NT$44,798 recorded in 1998, an indication that salaried workers may feel they are earning less than they were 15 years ago.
The average monthly wage in the industrial and service sectors climbed to a new high of NT$37,716 last month, an increase of 0.99 percent from a year earlier, the DGBAS report said.
The overall average monthly wage, including bonuses and compensation, rose 0.17 percent to a new high of NT$45,965 last year compared with 2012, the report said.
However, after adjusting for inflation — which climbed 0.79 percent year-on-year last year — the real average wage, including bonuses and compensation, fell 0.62 percent from 2012 to NT$44,739 per month, the report showed.
JITTERS: Nexperia has a 20 percent market share for chips powering simpler features such as window controls, and changing supply chains could take years European carmakers are looking into ways to scratch components made with parts from China, spooked by deepening geopolitical spats playing out through chipmaker Nexperia BV and Beijing’s export controls on rare earths. To protect operations from trade ructions, several automakers are pushing major suppliers to find permanent alternatives to Chinese semiconductors, people familiar with the matter said. The industry is considering broader changes to its supply chain to adapt to shifting geopolitics, Europe’s main suppliers lobby CLEPA head Matthias Zink said. “We had some indications already — questions like: ‘How can you supply me without this dependency on China?’” Zink, who also
At least US$50 million for the freedom of an Emirati sheikh: That is the king’s ransom paid two weeks ago to militants linked to al-Qaeda who are pushing to topple the Malian government and impose Islamic law. Alongside a crippling fuel blockade, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) has made kidnapping wealthy foreigners for a ransom a pillar of its strategy of “economic jihad.” Its goal: Oust the junta, which has struggled to contain Mali’s decade-long insurgency since taking power following back-to-back coups in 2020 and 2021, by scaring away investors and paralyzing the west African country’s economy.
BUST FEARS: While a KMT legislator asked if an AI bubble could affect Taiwan, the DGBAS minister said the sector appears on track to continue growing The local property market has cooled down moderately following a series of credit control measures designed to contain speculation, the central bank said yesterday, while remaining tight-lipped about potential rule relaxations. Lawmakers in a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee voiced concerns to central bank officials that the credit control measures have adversely affected the government’s tax income and small and medium-sized property developers, with limited positive effects. Housing prices have been climbing since 2016, even when the central bank imposed its first set of control measures in 2020, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) said. “Since the second half of
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) received about NT$147 billion (US$4.71 billion) in subsidies from the US, Japanese, German and Chinese governments over the past two years for its global expansion. Financial data compiled by the world’s largest contract chipmaker showed the company secured NT$4.77 billion in subsidies from the governments in the third quarter, bringing the total for the first three quarters of the year to about NT$71.9 billion. Along with the NT$75.16 billion in financial aid TSMC received last year, the chipmaker obtained NT$147 billion in subsidies in almost two years, the data showed. The subsidies received by its subsidiaries —
RSS