The job market for Aborigines has shown signs of improving in the past few years, the Control Yuan said yesterday.
After keeping a close eye on how the government implemented its policies to stimulate employment among Aborigines over the past five years, the Control Yuan said it found that the jobless rate among the Aboriginal population had fallen to 4.05 percent at the end of last year, from 8.69 percent recorded at the end of 2009.
The Control Yuan said it came up with measures in 2000 to correct the Council of Indigenous People’s policies, which were criticized for a lack of coordination in utilizing resources to improve the job market for descendants of the nation’s first inhabitants.
The council’s stimulus measures had not been effective enough, which meant the unemployment rate among Aborigine’s had been much higher than the average jobless rate, the Control Yuan said.
As for the national average, the jobless rate fell to 3.79 percent at the end of December last year from 5.74 percent recorded at the end of 2009.
The statistics showed that the gap between the unemployment rate among Aborigines and the national average has been narrowing, the Control Yuan said, adding that a fall in the jobless rate among Aborigines represented improved living standards for the group.
After adjusting its coordination efforts, the council has stepped up implementation of a more effective job-training program over the past five years to help Aborigines find jobs more easily, the Control Yuan said.
It said that about 74 percent of Aborigines who signed up for the training courses found jobs last year, up from 55.7 percent in 2008.
The Ministry of Labor has also worked with the council to provide job-training courses, which has improved vocational skills for many Aborigines, the Control Yuan said.
The council has also launched job fairs and similar activities to match Aborigines with employers during the period, the Control Yuan said.
Through the council’s job-matching efforts, a total of 10,967 Aborigines found jobs over the past three years, the Control Yuan said.
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