Jobless rate high among Aborigines

For the indigenous peoples of Taiwan, the unemployment rate is more than just another government statistic. It's part of their daily life. And it's almost three times higher than that of the Han population.

According to a poll released yesterday by the Council of Aboriginal Affairs, the unemployment rate among indigenous people is 7.55 percent -- approximately three times that of the rest of the population.

The poll was conducted by the Taiwan Survey Service (故鄉市場調查股份有限公司) and was based on March figures.

The average unemployment rate for that month was 2.84 percent.

Of the 287,162 people from Taiwan's indigenous tribes above 15 years of age -- who constitute 1.7 percent of the island's total population in that age group -- 195,502, or 68 percent, are eligible for work, the poll indicated.

However, among the 195,502 people, a total of 14,757, or 7.55 percent, were unemployed.

Chiu Ju-na (邱汝娜), director of the council's Department of Social Welfare, said that the reasons behind the high unemployment rate among indigenous people include high salary expectations, low education levels, cultural and lifestyle habits and competition from foreign workers.

Chiu pointed out that since the majority of indigenous people have worked as laborers in the construction industry and are accustomed to high pay for short periods of time, they are not interested in jobs that offer lower salaries.

"They hope to make at least NT$3,000 per day, but the present market doesn't offer so high a rate due to the current economic slowdown," Chiu said. "Many of them won't accept a lower offer and choose instead to return to their hometowns."

Chiu said that since a majority of indigenous people don't have higher education credentials, their job competitiveness is weakened and their job options are limited.

The poll indicated that only nine percent of the population of indigenous people above 15 are college graduates.

The poll also indicated that 30 percent are high school graduates, 22 percent are junior high school graduates and 31 percent completed elementary school only.

Regarding cultural factors behind the high unemployment rate, Chiu said that many indigenous people do not enjoy working independently in industrial and commercial professions because it has long been a tribal custom to work in groups.

Chiu said that another reason for the high unemployment rate is competition from foreign workers. Chiu noted that 41 percent of laborers from the island's indigenous tribes work in technical, semi-technical and labor-intensive professions -- the same fields foreign workers are in.

According to statistics from the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, while the number of foreign workers working in major construction projects increased by 7,896 people in 1998, the number of indigenous people working in the same field decreased by approximately 1,000 people during the same period.

Council chairman Hua Chia-chih (華加志) said that while the council has set up vocational counseling services centers in the cities of Keelung, Taipei, Taoyuan, Taichung and Kaohsiung to provide job assistance for workers, the number of people coming to the centers to find jobs has been far less than the number of job opportunities offered.

Hua pointed out that while there are about 3,600 jobs available every month, only about 1,300 job seekers from indigenous tribes come in for job assistance.