More than 95 percent of married working-age women in Taiwan who are not working have no intention of entering the job market, mainly because they are taking care of family, a government survey released on Thursday found.
Among married women aged between 15 and 64 last year, 2.96 million had a job (57.24 percent) and 2.21 million did not (42.76 percent), the survey conducted by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics found.
Only 288,000 women (11.07 percent) in the age group who were not studying or working intended to look for a job within three months, of whom 49.16 percent were single, the survey showed.
For married women who were not studying or working, only 4.37 percent expressed interest in employment, it found.
Of the remaining 95.63 percent, nearly half (46 percent) cited household chores and the need to take care of family members such as children and the elderly, it found.
Breaking the responses down by age group, 60,000 respondents aged between 15 and 24 (78.58 percent), 184,000 aged between 25 and 49 (18.86 percent) and 44,000 aged between 50 and 64 (2.83 percent) who were not working intended to look for employment over the next three months, the survey showed.
Of those who had no plans to look for a job, 36.25 percent of respondents aged between 15 and 24 said they were receiving training or preparing for civil service or professional licensing exams; 61.38 percent of those aged between 25 and 49 percent said they needed to take care of family members; and 45.88 percent of those aged between 50 and 64 said their financial situation was such that they did not need to work.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
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