The unemployment rate last month stood at 3.66 percent, down 0.05 percentage points from a month earlier, as fewer people quit or lost their jobs to temporary or seasonal hiring, despite more business downsizing and closures, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
As the Lunar New Year is not until the middle of next month, the holiday season effect is not yet evident, tipping the unemployment rate up to 3.7 percent after seasonal adjustments from 3.69 percent in November, it said.
For the whole of last year, unemployment averaged 3.76 percent, the lowest in 17 years and consistent with small GDP growth, DGBAS Deputy Director Pan Ning-hsin (潘寧馨) said.
“The jobless reading has edged down modestly but steadily with export-oriented firms accounting for the bulk of job gains,” Pan told a media briefing.
As the holiday approaches, service sector firms are to raise headcounts to meet rising demand, a DGBAS official said.
A stable job market and mild wage increases are critical to spending, which is expected to help drive an estimated GDP growth of 2.26 percent this year as exports are expected to slow slightly, they said.
The number of unemployed people last month declined by 6,000 to 433,000, with the number of first-time jobseekers dropping by 3,000, and the number of people who quit or lost temporary jobs falling by 2,000 and 1,000 respectively, the DGBAS’ monthly report showed.
However, the number of people who lost their jobs due to downsizing or closures gained 1,000, it said.
University graduates had the highest rate of unemployment at 5.06 percent, followed by high-school graduates (3.6 percent) and those with graduate diplomas (2.85 percent), it said.
Unemployment was highest among people aged 20 to 24 at 11.78 percent, followed by the 15-to-19 age group (7.98 percent) and those aged 25 to 29 (6.43 percent), it said.
Taitung County had the lowest unemployment rate of 3.5 percent, while Taoyuan and Pingtung counties had the highest rate at 3.9 percent, it said.
Meanwhile, the average take-home wage in November stood at NT$40,219 per month, up 1.91 percent year-on-year, while the total monthly wage, including overtime pay and other compensation, rose 2.86 percent to NT$45,133, the DGBAS said in a separate report.
The average monthly wage in the first 11 months of last year rose to a record NT$39,899, up 1.8 percent year-on-year, but the real gain eased to 1.23 percent after factoring in 0.57 percent inflation, it said.
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