The unemployment rate fell to 4.53 percent last month from 4.58 percent the previous month, as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufac-turing Co (
The number of people out of work fell to 460,000 from 465,000 in December, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting & Statistics (DGBAS) reported yesterday.
The number of unemployed people who lost their jobs because of business closures and job cuts rose to 186,000 last month from 183,000 in December, the DGBAS said.
The latest figure is the lowest monthly jobless rate since June 2001, when it was 4.51 percent.
"The economic recovery is very clear now, the employment market is very active, and companies are stepping up hiring," Chen Jin-cherng (
Of the sequential change, there were declines of 3,000 in the number of first-time job-seekers who failed to find work and 2,000 in people whose seasonal or other temporary jobs were terminated, according to the bureau.
Low unemployment may make households more inclined to spend in an economy where consumer spending rose 0.8 percent last year.
It may also boost President Chen Shui-bian's (
Growing sales of cellphones, notebook computers and semiconductors to China, Europe and Japan are stoking economic growth in Taiwan. The government on Friday raised its economic growth forecast for this year to 4.74 percent from 4.1 percent and predicted private investment will rise 15 percent this year after sliding 0.7 percent last year.
TSMC, the world's biggest supplier of made-to-order chips, plans to hire almost 3,000 people this year in Taiwan.
Chunghwa Picture Tubes, the nation's third-biggest maker of flat-panel displays, said it intends to recruit 2,000 workers.
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