The nation’s unemployment rate rose to a new high of 6.07 percent last month, as an extra 14,000 first-time job seekers entered the labor market and firms tightened overheads to weather the slump, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The nominal index, which has yet to factor in the impact of Typhoon Morakot, is expected to rise again next month and remain high until the economy recovers, the statistics agency said.
“The jobless rate gained 0.13 percentage points to 6.07 percent in July, the highest since the survey began in 1978,” said Liu Tian-shy (劉天賜), deputy director at DGBAS’ census bureau. “The number of people unemployed rose by 16,000 to 663,000, with 1.39 million people affected by unemployment.”
The jobless reading after seasonal adjustment stood at 6.01 percent, also the highest in 31 years, the report showed.
JOB SEEKERS
Liu attributed the deteriorating job market to the seasonal upsurge in the number of first-time job seekers between May and August, while companies have been conservative on personnel recruitment amid the downturn.
Liu said the typhoon would make job hunting more difficult this month and beyond.
Some 60,000 working people live in the areas hardest hit by the disaster, Liu said, putting the working population there at 20,000.
“The impact of the storm remains to be seen, depending on the pace of relief and reconstruction efforts,” Liu said. “The disaster hurt the agricultural, tourist, dining and retail sectors.”
He said unemployment would have hit 6.47 percent if the government had not hired 1.04 million people through assorted stimulus and job-creation programs.
Meanwhile, the broad unemployment measure, which refers both to the unemployed and discouraged job hunters, stood at 7.59 percent last month, the report said.
DIFFERING OPINIONS
Liu said the job market would improve next month. Analysts did not share Liu’s optimism.
Jack Huang (黃蔭基), head of research at SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控), said the unemployment reading were likely to rise for the remainder of the year after the job-creation programs had failed to keep the index under 6 percent.
“The job market will continue worsening in the coming months because of first-time job seekers and Morakot,” Huang said by telephone. “That trend, however, will not derail the economy from the road to recovery.”
Wu Chung-shu (吳中書), an economics researcher at Academia Sinica, said he was not certain that the jobless rate would fall in September.
“The nation remains in a down-cycle, though the pace of decline has eased,” Wu said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique