With the unemployment rate remaining high, helping the jobless find work has become a new service offered by lawmakers and probably a way to boost their year-end legislative election campaigns.
In Taipei yesterday, New Party lawmaker Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) held a vocational exposition, where 37 companies offered more than 500 job opportunities, to show his concern for the unemployed.
Lai pointed out that Taiwan's unemployment rate was a record 4.2 percent in May, and that many people have been out of work for more than 10 months.
The problem is expected to worsen now that a new group of college graduates has entered the job market.
"Every week, my office receives an average of 20 cases asking for help with employment," Lai said.
Lai said that although the government has put forward a number of measures to try to resolve the unemployment problem and broker jobs between employers and the jobless, the scheme had only been about 10 percent successful.
In light of this problem, a special counter was set up at the exposition yesterday to offer further services to people who have failed to find work.
Banks were also invited to the exposition to provide loan services to people interested in starting a business.
Another New Party lawmaker, Cheng Long-shui (
Cheng proposed that Keelung residents should be prioritized for employment to work on construction projects in Keelung.
Also, he said the government should set up a social security network and conduct a census of the unemployed so as to facilitate efforts to broker jobs for them.
Analysts yesterday said the unemployment problem will inevitably become an issue in the year-end legislative campaign, because Taiwan is now witnessing its worst economic situation in 20 years.
"During the petroleum crisis and the Asian financial crisis, Taiwan performed much better than other Asian countries. This time is the worst we have ever seen," said Thomas Peng (彭錦鵬), associate professor of political science at National Taiwan University.
Peng said opposition candidates could easily criticize the DPP government for the situation, as its policy failure was responsible for much of the problem.
For example, Peng said, the ongoing dispute over the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant has caused investors to lose faith in the government, while no progress has been made after government promises to boost the information technology industry and develop a knowledge-based economy.
RSS