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.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last week recorded an increase in the number of shareholders to the highest in almost eight months, despite its share price falling 3.38 percent from the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data released on Saturday showed. As of Friday, TSMC had 1.88 million shareholders, the most since the week of April 25 and an increase of 31,870 from the previous week, the data showed. The number of shareholders jumped despite a drop of NT$50 (US$1.59), or 3.38 percent, in TSMC’s share price from a week earlier to NT$1,430, as investors took profits from their earlier gains
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
TAIWAN VALUE CHAIN: Foxtron is to fully own Luxgen following the transaction and it plans to launch a new electric model, the Foxtron Bria, in Taiwan next year Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday said that its board of directors approved the disposal of its electric vehicle (EV) unit, Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), to Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進) for NT$787.6 million (US$24.98 million). Foxtron, a half-half joint venture between Yulon affiliate Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), expects to wrap up the deal in the first quarter of next year. Foxtron would fully own Luxgen following the transaction, including five car distributing companies, outlets and all employees. The deal is subject to the approval of the Fair Trade Commission, Foxtron said. “Foxtron will be
INFLATION CONSIDERATION: The BOJ governor said that it would ‘keep making appropriate decisions’ and would adjust depending on the economy and prices The Bank of Japan (BOJ) yesterday raised its benchmark interest rate to the highest in 30 years and said more increases are in the pipeline if conditions allow, in a sign of growing conviction that it can attain the stable inflation target it has pursued for more than a decade. Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda’s policy board increased the rate by 0.2 percentage points to 0.75 percent, in a unanimous decision, the bank said in a statement. The central bank cited the rising likelihood of its economic outlook being realized. The rate change was expected by all 50 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The
RSS