The unemployment rate is expected to continue rising, despite the large amount of new jobs that were created by the retail service sector last year, market watchers said yesterday.
A good portion of new jobs came late last year from two new large-scale shopping malls in Taipei -- the Breeze Center (
"Between November and December 2001, jobs created by shopping malls and retail stores tripled over the same period in 2000," said Tina Lo (羅曉畹), a senior researcher at 104 Job Bank Corp (104 人力銀行).
One government official at the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) agreed with Lo, saying that the service sector is what the nation should focus on.
"To compete with China's low labor cost, we should try to emphasize more on service and product quality, rather than on production," said Chen Jin-cherng (陳金城), deputy director of DGBAS's bureau of census.
He stressed, however, that these new jobs from shopping malls may make no significant impact on the record-high unemployment rate.
"It is only a temporary relief, not a long-term help," Chen said.
Since these new centers will absorb sales from existing retail stores, another group of people will lose their jobs later.
Taiwan reported a 4.57 percent unemployment rate last year, the nation's highest level since 1978.
Although the number fell slightly to 5.22 percent in December last year from 5.28 percent the month before, the government didn't express much optimism.
"Most of the newly-hired people in December last year were short-term sales people working during the Chinese New Year holiday season only," Chen said.
He estimated that the unemployment figure will rise again in March or April.
"The effects of Taiwan's entry into the WTO will especially aggravate the number -- by about 0.22 percent," Chen said.
Farmers and blue-collar workers are expected to be impacted most by the accession, and they will have to find new jobs from different industries, Chen said.
Meanwhile, a pundit from an-other job bank said the international trade sector will take advantage of Taiwan's WTO accession.
"Demand for staff in international trade companies jumped significantly after November last year," said Wayne Shiah (
In the wake of Taiwan's inclusion in the global free-trade body on Jan 1, an increasing number of foreign ventures will come to the nation, and more local companies plan to do business globally, he explained.
"From the faculties they look for, we can tell they are poised to enter the international market," Shiah said.
Currently, the international trade industry ranks as the number two sector with most job opportunities in the 1111 job bank. The job bank's top job-offering sector is the electronics -- or computer-related -- industry.
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