The unemployment rate last month declined 0.09 percentage points from August to 3.99 percent, although it rose 0.10 percentage points from the same period last year, government figures released yesterday showed.
After seasonal adjustments, the jobless rate declined 0.02 percentage points to 3.93 percent last month, due to a drop in first-time jobseekers, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said.
That means 469,000 people were out of work, a decrease of 11,000 compared with August, the agency said.
The jobless rate tends to rise in July and August because of the entry to the job market of new university graduates.
The number of first-time jobseekers fell 7,000 from a month earlier, indicating that more new graduates found jobs, agency Census Department Deputy Director Pan Ning-hsin (潘寧馨) said.
Last month, the number of people who quit their jobs fell by 3,000 and the number of those who lost their jobs due to temporary or seasonal contracts dropped by 1,000, the data showed.
However, the number of those who lost their jobs because of downsizing or closures rose by 1,000 from the previous month.
The jobless rate among those aged 20 to 24 was 13.03 percent, down 0.4 percentage points from a month earlier, while the unemployment rate among those aged 25 to 29 was 6.86 percent, down 0.12 percentage points month-on-month, the data showed.
The jobless rate among people with a university degree or higher stood at 4.95 percent, down 0.16 percentage points from a month earlier, the agency said.
The labor participation rate fell 0.14 percentage points from a month earlier to 58.79 percent, with the work force totaling 11.75 million people, down 25,000, or 0.21 percent, from a month earlier.
In the first nine months of this year, the unemployment rate averaged 3.94 percent, up 0.20 percentage points from the previous year.
During the nine-month period, the average labor participation rate also rose 0.09 percentage points year-on-year to 58.72 percent, the agency said.
In related news, average earnings inched up 1.37 percent from January to August, but a rise in consumer prices chipped away at purchasing power, agency statistics showed.
Average monthly earnings rose to NT$39,146 in the first eight months, a record high for the period, but that was muted by a 1.38 percent rise in inflation, the agency said.
Consequently, real earnings fell 1.2 percent in the eight-month period, the agency said.
Average monthly earnings in the industrial and service sectors was NT$39,318 in August, an increase of 0.29 percent from the previous month and 1.4 percent year-on-year, the agency said.
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