Unemployment last month rose by 0.01 percentage points to 3.9 percent, the lowest level for October in 15 years, according to government figures released yesterday.
The number of total unemployed people was 455,000 last month, an increase of 1,000 from the previous month, but a decrease of 2,000 from the same month last year, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said.
The number of first-time jobseekers last month fell 1,000 from a month earlier, while the number of those who lost their jobs due to downsizing and closures rose by 1,000, and the number of those who became unemployed due to temporary job contract terminations increased by 1,000.
After seasonal adjustments, the local jobless rate stood at 3.79 percent last month, the same as in September, but down 0.09 percentage points from a year earlier, the DGBAS data showed.
Chang Yun-yun (張雲澐), deputy chief of the agency’s census division, said the local market has changed, as employers tend to reduce working hours and manufacturers cut overtime hours to cope with the latest economic slowdown
Daniel Lee (李大華), vice president of 1111 Job Bank, one of Taiwan’s top human resources agencies, said in a media release that the labor market has been hit by fewer orders from foreign clients in the export-driven manufacturing and technology sectors, as well as unpaid leaves and job cuts in other sectors.
While service sector jobs accounted for about 47 percent of the 430,000 job openings last month, Lee forecast that more temporary jobs would be available at the year-end shopping season and that the overall labor market would have robust demand for employees in the first quarter of next year.
The ratio of new job seekers to job openings was 1:1.82 last month despite a decrease in the number of employment opportunities, according to DGBAS.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure