The number of foreign workers legally working in Taiwan surged to a new high of 329,612 at the end of June, even though the Cabinet-level Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) has implemented a series of foreign laborer retrenchment measures.
June's number of legal foreign workers marked an increase of 812 from the May level, and also exceeded April's record by 300, according to CLA tallies.
After the CLA adopted measures to restrict hiring of foreign housemaids and workers in the construction and manufacturing industries early this year, the number of alien workers registered a rare decline in May, but rebounded in June to break a historic record set in April.
Officials attributed the phenomenon mainly to a time gap between the approval of applications for importing foreign workers and the actual arrival of those workers.
Labor officials said so long as the government continues its current retrenchment policy and the domestic economy fails to regain momentum, the local demand for foreign laborers would certainly drop and the number of alien workers on the island would decline accordingly.
In June, Taiwan had 105,222 foreign housemaids, up 1,203 from the May level. They also formed the largest foreign laborer group in Taiwan.
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