Taiwan's unemployment rate rose to 5.11 percent in June from 5.02 percent in May, with a total of 509,000 people out of work, the government's statisticians said yesterday.
But the jobless rate could reach record levels in the coming months because more than 16,000 college graduates will leave school and join the employee market this month, said Chen Jin-cherng (
"The jobless rate is likely to break last year's [October] record of 5.33 percent, with the graduation season coming up in the next three months," Chen said.
While 509,000 people are currently out of jobs, this figure will be boosted when an expected 30,000 college graduates enter the employee market in the next two months, Chen said.
However, seeing that 3,000 more employees found jobs in June compared to the previous month, the nation's manufacturing sector seems to be reviving, having created a total of 6,000 jobs in one month -- 4,000 of which are with electronics manufacturers, Chen said.
Moreover, as 10,000 less jobs are being lost every month from factory closures, Chen estimated this year's jobless rate may hover at between 5.01 percent and 5.1 percent.
While DGBAS is claiming a higher jobless figure for first-time job seekers, Wayne Shiah (夏瑋), spokesman at 1111 Job Bank (1111人力銀行), an online job-search firm, yesterday held a different point of view.
Shiah said that, according to the company's database, there will be an average of six to seven job offers for each graduate with an information technology-related major while graduates with non IT-related majors will get only 0.6 job opportunities per applicant.
"Many high-tech and semiconductor-making firms are hiring college graduates because of their loyalty to companies," Shiah said.
He therefore estimated that 50 percent of this year's graduates should be able to land jobs within three months after graduation while 90 percent of them will be able to start working within six months.
He said that it took an average of seven months for last year's college graduates to locate jobs.
Although local economists all look forward to a mild recovery in the second half of the year, the DGBAS's Chen said that the expected recovery is not clear enough yet and may not translate into more jobs because the US economy and currency hasn't been performing well.
DGBAS also said in yesterday's report that the jobless rate of two additional counties -- Chiayi and Tainan -- has climbed above five percent, in addition to last month's total of 12 counties and cities where this was the case.
Central Taiwan has the highest jobless rate of 5.31 percent, compared to 4.96 percent in northern Taiwan, 5.16 percent in southern Taiwan and 5.26 percent in eastern Taiwan.
The past few months' water-rationing policies may have forced some businesses to shut down in central Changhwa County and Taichung City, where more people are entering the job market, the DGBAS said.
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