The unemployment rate last month rose to 3.7 percent, an increase of 0.07 percentage points from a month earlier, as firms closed temporary positions and people dissatisfied with their jobs quit ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
“Despite the seasonal uptick, the job market remains healthy amid economic improvement... The unemployment gauge might edge down this month,” DGBAS Deputy Director Pan Ning-hsin (潘寧馨) told a media briefing.
The jobless reading after seasonal adjustments last month gained 0.02 percentage points to 3.7 percent.
The agency’s monthly report showed there were 8,000 more unemployed people than in January to total 438,000, as 4,000 people quit and another 4,000 lost temporary jobs.
People who lost jobs due to business downsizing or closures also increased by 1,000, but the number of first-time jobseekers dropped by 2,000, the report said.
By education breakdown, university graduates had the highest rate of unemployment at 5.13 percent, followed by high-school graduates at 3.64 percent and those with graduate degrees at 2.88 percent.
Unemployment was highest among people aged 20 to 24 at 11.89 percent, followed by the 15-to-19 age group at 8.1 percent and those aged 25 to 29 at 6.46 percent, the report said.
For the first two months of the year, the jobless rate averaged 3.67 percent, the lowest for the period in 17 years, affirming a stable market, Pan said.
In related news, the total monthly wage — including bonuses and overtime pay — in January averaged NT$60,035, down 35.55 percent from a year earlier, while monthly take-home wages stood at NT$40,787, up 2.79 percent year-on-year, a separate DGBAS report showed.
The agency attributed the mixed showings to the timing of the Lunar New Year holiday that fell last month, leading some firms to delay distributions of year-end bonuses.
Last year, nearly all companies distributed bonuses in January, raising the comparison base, it said.
Real wage gains eased to 1.88 percent after factoring in 0.89 percent inflation, it added.
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