The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) yesterday said first-time applicants for unemployment benefit last month dropped to pre-financial crisis levels of less than 7,000.
The council’s Bureau of Labor Insurance said before the start of the financial crisis at the end of 2008, the number of first-time claimants for unemployment benefit remained relatively steady at between 5,000 and 7,000 each month. At the height of the financial crisis, the number of new claimants peaked at 35,000 in February last year, mainly because the unemployment rate reached a 31-year high of 5.31 percent the previous month, the bureau said.
Combined with non-first time claimants, the total number of people receiving unemployment benefit soared to more than 110,000 people in February last year, with payments reaching NT$2 billion (US$61.83 million). The number peaked again in March last year, reaching 124,000.
In total, more than 217,000 people received unemployment benefit payments totaling NT$20.8 billion last year, setting a record for the highest amount of unemployment benefit paid out in the 11 years since the program was launched, said Lin Chung-cheng (林中正), manager of insurance payments at the bureau.
Since the beginning of last year, the bureau has recorded falls in both the number of first-time applicants and workers who continue to claim benefits because they have yet to find a new job since being laid off.
However, as recently as September last year, as many as 87,000 workers were still receiving unemployment benefit, with payments reaching NT$1.73 billion.
Last month’s 6,800 new claimants is an indication that that the number of newly unemployed workers has returned to levels last seen before the financial crisis and that companies are beginning to create more jobs as the economy revives, Lin said.
The bureau said it did not anticipate a sharp increase in the number of claimants this month, despite new graduates looking for employment, as only those who have been insured under the national labor insurance system for at least a year are eligible to apply.
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