The unemployment rate edged up to 3.72 percent last month, ending six months of decreases, as companies in the service sector cut temporary positions after the Lunar New Year holiday, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The latest jobless figure, while gaining 0.03 percentage point from February, is the lowest in 15 years when compared with the same month of the year, DGBAS Deputy Director Lo Yi-ling (羅怡玲) said.
The statistics official attributed the stable job market to an improving economy at home and abroad, which helped boost domestic wages to a record high in the first two months of the year.
“The jobless rate rose slightly [last month] due to the losses of temporary jobs after the Lunar New Year holiday,” Lo said, adding that some workers quit jobs to search of better ones after obtaining bonuses at the end of the lunar year.
The unemployment rate after seasonal adjustments stood at 3.75 percent last month, also higher than 3.74 percent recorded a month earlier, the DGBAS report showed.
The figures suggested a jobless population of about 431,000 last month, an increase of 3,000 from February, the report said.
The number of people who quit jobs increased by 3,000 last month, while people who lost their jobs due to business closures or seasonal factors increased by 3,000, the report said.
However, first-time job seekers dropped by 3,000 last month, thanks to a growing job pool, the report said.
The service sector hired an extra 93,000 workers, while industrial sectors added 34,000 last month, from a year earlier, the report said.
Unemployment was highest among people with a university degree or higher at 4.71 percent, followed by college graduates at 4.04 percent and high-school graduates at 3.78 percent, the report said.
By age, the 15-to-24 group had the highest unemployment rate at 11.58 percent, compared with 3.91 percent for the 25-to-44 group and 1.99 percent for the 45-to-64 bracket, the report said.
The job market might remain stable going forward, as 1111 Job Bank (1111人力銀行) reported 48,000 job openings last month, the highest in 16 years, the company said in statement.
Regular monthly wages averaged NT$38,148 in February, down 1.03 percent from January, but up 1.64 percent from a year earlier, the DGBAS said in a separate report.
Non-regular monthly wages stood at NT$86,666 in February, more than double the level in the prior year, as improved earnings allowed firms to provide better bonuses to employees, the statistics agency said.
Stripping holiday distortions, regular monthly wages picked up 1.62 percent year-on-year to a record high of NT$38,347 for the first two months, DGBAS data showed, adding that the wage increase would hit 2.2 percent after factoring in inflation.
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV yesterday said that it has reached an agreement to acquire a subsidiary brewery of Taiwan’s Sanyo Whisbih Group (三洋維士比集團). Heineken is to assume majority ownership and management rights of the Long Chuan Zuan Co (龍泉鑽興業) brewery in Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔), the Dutch company said. It would become the first multinational brewing company to operate brewery in Taiwan once the acquisition is completed. The deal has been approved by the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Investment Commission, but details of the financial transaction cannot be disclosed at this time, as terms of the settlement have not been completed,
Had Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck hopped on an electric scooter rather than a Vespa in the classic film Roman Holiday, their spin around the Eternal City might have ended in tears. The number of crashes and near-misses involving the two-wheelers has prompted Rome authorities to impose some order on a booming rental market that began two years ago. The havoc came to a head earlier this month when two US tourists attempted a night-time drive down the Spanish Steps, causing more than 25,000 euros (US$26,392) worth of damage to the 18th-century monument. Caught on security footage, the couple in their late 20s
LOOK WHO OWES: China’s exposure to Taiwanese banks was the second-largest, with Luxembourg third, followed by Hong Kong and Japan, the central bank said The US remained the largest debtor country to Taiwan’s banking sector for a 27th consecutive quarter in the first quarter of this year, with its exposure rising 8.3 percent from a quarter earlier on the back of an increase in US bonds, the central bank said on Friday. Data compiled by the central bank showed that outstanding international claims by Taiwanese banks on a direct risk basis to the US stood at US$125.38 billion as of the end of March. Department of Financial Inspection deputy head Pan Ya-hui (潘雅慧) said that the US Federal Reserve’s launch of a rate hike cycle in
GREEN CITY: The company is set to invest US$8 billion to make electric vehicles and batteries for a new city that would rely entirely on renewable energy sources Indonesia said that Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) is considering investing in the country’s new capital city, a move that would bolster the US$34 billion construction project. Hon Hai, which is known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), is looking at setting up an electric bus system and an Internet of Things network at Nusantara, as Indonesia’s new capital is to be called, Indonesian Minister of Investment Bahlil Lahadalia said in a statement yesterday. Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Saturday to discuss the company’s plan to invest US$8 billion to build a manufacturing plant
RSS