The unemployment rate climbed to 4.03 percent last month as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic began to bite, surpassing 4 percent for the first time in the past 42 months, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
Last month’s figure is the highest for April in the past seven years, DGBAS data showed.
The jobless rate expanded for the third consecutive month after posting 3.64 percent, 3.7 percent and 3.72 percent respectively in the first three months of this year, DGBAS senior executive officer Chen Hui-hsin (陳惠欣) told a media briefing.
Photo: CNA
The gauge accelerated last month with a monthly gain of 0.31 percent, the highest for a single month in the past 11 years, as more firms in the service sector, hurt by the outbreak, dismissed employees while cutting back on operations or shutting down, Chen said.
The number of unemployed people last month was 481,000, an increase of 36,000 from a month earlier, mostly due to business downsizing and factory closures, the DGBAS said.
The number of employed people fell to 11.46 million, down 46,000 from March, with a decline of 34,000 in the service industry, 9,000 in the manufacturing industry and 3,000 in the agriculture industry, the data showed.
Among service industries, tourism and dining lost 10,000 employees from March, customer service workers fell by 4,000, entertainment and recreation decreased 3,000, finance lost 2,000 and transportation dropped 1,000, the DGBAS data showed.
The healthcare and real-estate industries bucked the trend, each gaining 1,000 employees from a month earlier, the data showed.
After seasonal adjustments, the jobless rate rose 4.1 percent, the biggest rise since January 2014, Chen said.
The number of people whose work hours decreased rose, suggesting that local companies are contracting operations to cope with declining business, the DGBAS said.
The number of people working fewer than 35 hours per week surged to 400,000 last month, increasing 139,000 from 261,000 in March, Chen said.
The gauge usually predicts joblessness, as firms usually reduce working hours before resorting to layoffs when a situation fails to improve, the agency said.
The rise in the unemployment rate last month was not surprising, as the DGBAS forecast that the pandemic would continue to dampen economic activity after more than 400 people in Taiwan were infected, Chen said.
The agency expects the gauge to improve this month, given that the outbreak is diminishing domestically and private consumption is gradually recovering, although the situation in other nations would still affect the local economy, Chen said.
Taiwan’s unemployment rate is lower than the US’ 14.7 percent, Canada’s 13 percent, Hong Kong’s 5.2 percent, but higher than South Korea’s 3.8 percent and Japan’s 2.5 percent, the data showed.
The domestic unit of the Chinese-owned, Dutch-headquartered chipmaker Nexperia BV will soon be able to produce semiconductors locally within China, according to two company sources. Nexperia is at the center of a global tug-of-war over critical semiconductor technology, with a Dutch court in February ordering a probe into alleged mismanagement at the company. The geopolitical tussle has disrupted supply chains, with some carmakers reportedly forced to cut production due to chip shortages. Local production would allow Nexperia’s domestic arm, Nexperia Semiconductors (China) Ltd (安世半導體中國), to bypass restrictions in place since October on the supply of silicon wafers — etched with tiny components to
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday received government approval to deploy its advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process at its second fab currently under construction in Japan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a news release. The ministry green-lit the plan for the facility in Kumamoto, which is scheduled to start installing equipment and come online in 2028 with a monthly production capacity of 15,000 12-inch wafers, the ministry said. The Department of Investment Review in June 2024 authorized a US$5.26 billion investment for the facility, slated to manufacture 6- to 12nm chips, significantly less advanced than 3nm process. At a meeting with
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
RSS