Unabated inflation continued to erode incomes in the first five months of this year, with the decline in real wages widening to 2.01 percent, the nation’s statistics agency reported yesterday.
The report by Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said nominal wages, averaging NT$37,066 a month between January and May, posted the biggest drop since 1980.
“The nominal wage climbed 1.58 percent in first five months of this year,” Huang Jiann-jong (黃建中), deputy director of DGBAS’ census bureau, told a news conference. “But the gain failed to match the rise of 3.66 percent in commodity prices during the same period, resulting in real wages declining 2.01 percent after falling 1.92 percent a month ago.”
Huang pinned the blame primarily on imported inflation, which has pushed up fuel and raw material costs and dented corporate profit margins.
The statistics official dismissed concerns about stagflation, noting that while the consumer price index kept rising, the domestic labor participation rate remained stable.
Unemployment stood at 3.95 percent, or 428,000 people, last month, up 0.11 percent, or 12,000 people, from May, the DGBAS report said.
Huang attributed the rise to the entry of new college graduates, who accounted for 4.42 percent of the jobless population, topping other groups by education.
“Seasonally adjusted unemployment stood at 3.88 percent in June, down 0.01 points from a month earlier, indicating labor participation is steadily growing,” Huang said.
The official declined to speculate on the real wage decline except to say the trend would reverse when inflation is contained, the economy recovers and corporate margins expand.
Economists said they saw no signs of an economic recovery in the near term.
Daw Jaw-yang (戴肇洋), a researcher at the Taiwan Research Institute (台綜院), said real wages would continue to decline in the second half of the year unless oil prices could drop sizably, under US$100 a barrel, for example.
“The government cannot stabilize commodity prices or boost the economy if fuel and raw material costs continue the upward trend,” Daw said by telephone.
The researcher also cast doubts on the official unemployment figures, saying they failed to take part-time workers into consideration.
Daw said he doubted this group could adequately support their family given their limited pay.
Chu Hau-min (朱浩民), professor of Money and Banking Department at National Chengchi University, agreed.
Chu said he was not surprised at the wider drop in real wages and predicted no across-the-board wage hike would take place in the next two years.
“It is unlikely the private sector would raise wages even if the government manages to expand domestic demand and raise GDP growth,” Chu said by telephone. “Manufacturers by and large have kept profit margins low to compete in the international stage.”
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
FACTORY SHIFT: While Taiwan produces most of the world’s AI servers, firms are under pressure to move manufacturing amid geopolitical tensions Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) started building artificial intelligence (AI) servers in India’s south, the latest boon for the rapidly growing country’s push to become a high-tech powerhouse. The company yesterday said it has started making the large, powerful computers in Pondicherry, southeastern India, moving beyond products such as laptops and smartphones. The Chinese company would also build out its facilities in the Bangalore region, including a research lab with a focus on AI. Lenovo’s plans mark another win for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tries to attract more technology investment into the country. While India’s tense relationship with China has suffered setbacks
RSS