The labor force participation rate among people aged between 15 and 24 declined to 33.8 percent last year, or 1.38 percent less than the previous year, according to statistics compiled by the Council of Labor Affairs.
The labor force participation rate represents the ratio of the workforce to the overall population of a certain age group
The council's statistics show that 1,144,000 people aged between 15 and 24 entered the workforce last year, 70,000 fewer people than the previous year.
Officials from the council said the decline continues a 10-year trend which has seen an accumulated decrease of 14.63 percent in the last decade in inverse proportion to a 10-year 12.2 percent increase in the number of people of this age group attending schools.
Thanks to the booming economy, officials said, Taiwan's unemployment rate of people in the age group has declined by 0.47 percent last year to 11.44 percent, although it is still the highest jobless rate of all age groups. The high unemployment rate in this age group is ascribed to a lack of work experience among teenagers and young men, which has limited their chances of landing jobs, and the frequent changes of jobs among them.
In the age group between 15 and 19, the labor force participation rate is less than 20 percent in most countries, except for the US, which registered a rate of 44.5 percent last year.
In Taiwan this rate increased to 44.5 percent in the age group of 20 to 24, which is lower than the 57 percent in South Korea, and is far behind that of Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan, according to the Council of Labor Affairs.
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