Wanted: jobs
They hit the streets by the thousands, united in their call for more jobs and demanding a policy fix to cure the economic woes. But most analysts agree there is little the government can do in the short term to stimulate the US appetite for Taiwan-made computers, phones and other electronics, which make up about half of Taiwan's export-dependent economy. According to officials the math is simple: Less trade means fewer jobs.
Taiwanese, long accustomed to job stability, have panicked in recent months at the thought of joining the ranks of some 380,000 on the unemployment line -- or worse yet -- looking for work in a construction or manufacturing position usually reserved for imported laborers. The news, while a bitter pill few will want to swallow, may be the only choice in the near future according to the economic's chief.
"There is no magic cure for Taiwan's economic ills," Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Hsin-yi (林信義) said just last month, adding that the public "should expect between two and three more years of pain before things improve."
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