The unemployment rate last month fell to 3.66 percent, down 0.04 percentage points from a month earlier, as fewer people lost their jobs to business downsizing or temporary hiring, although more people quit, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The data represented the lowest March unemployment level in 18 years, supported by a stable economy that helped firms maintain steady headcounts, it said.
“Many people who wanted to switch jobs landed new positions,” which is why the jobless gauge dropped from 3.7 percent in February, DGBAS Deputy Director Pan Ning-hsin (潘寧馨) told a media briefing.
Taiwanese who are dissatisfied with their work tend to change jobs after collecting year-end bonuses ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday.
The seasonal jobless rate stood at 3.67 percent, affirming a stable job market, Pan said.
The statistics agency is likely to raise its growth forecast on Friday for the nation’s economy last quarter and this year, after outbound shipments picked up at a faster pace than its February projection.
However, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (台積電) conservative business guidance last week cast a shadow on the economy.
Taiwan is home to the world’s largest contract chipmakers, with semiconductors accounting for 30 percent of the nation’s exports.
The DGBAS’ latest report showed that the number of unemployed people declined by 5,000 to 433,000, first-time jobseekers decreased by 2,000, and people who lost their jobs to business downsizing and seasonal hiring dropped by 2,000 each.
The number of people who quit increased by 1,000, it added.
The labor force grew by 6,000 people to 11.4 million, as service-oriented sectors supplied 59.35 percent of jobs, industrial sectors contributed 35.7 percent and agricultural sectors the remaining 4.91 percent, the report said.
By education breakdown, university graduates had the highest unemployment rate at 5.05 percent, followed by high-school graduates at 3.6 percent and those with graduate degrees at 2.87 percent, it said.
Unemployment was highest among people aged between 20 and 24 at 11.75 percent, followed by the 15-to-19 age group at 8.06 percent and those aged from 25 to 29 at 6.4 percent, it added.
The unemployment period averaged 23.5 weeks last month, shorter by a half week from one month earlier, it said.
However, first-time jobseekers reported greater difficulty securing jobs, with their unemployment duration lasting for 30.2 weeks on average, the report said.
For the first three months of the year, the jobless rate averaged 3.68 percent, the lowest in 18 years for the period, it said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six