The nation’s unemployment rate last month increased to 4 percent from 3.96 percent in June, as a seasonal increase in first-time jobseekers more than offset a drop in the number of people losing jobs to downsizing and closures, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The statistics agency declined to disclose a forecast for this month, saying that the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the economy and job market, although the situation has mostly stabilized.
“The virus outbreak postponed the entry of college graduates into the job market, accounting for the unexpected decline in the unemployment rate in June,” DGBAS Deputy Director Chen Hui-hsin (陳惠欣) said.
The unemployment rate tends to increase between June and August, Chen said, adding that the 0.04 percentage point gain last month is milder than increases of 0.09 to 0.11 percentage points in the previous five years.
The number of first-time jobseekers rose by 9,000 last month to 109,000, as the graduation season started to show an unfavorable effect on the job market, she said.
The unemployment rate after seasonal adjustments was 3.9 percent, falling from 3.97 percent the previous month, indicating that the effects of the outbreak is easing, Chen said.
It is difficult to tell the economic scene ahead, as COVID-19 infections continue to spike in many parts of the world, raising uncertainty for businesses at home and abroad, she said.
The Ministry of Labor said the number of furloughed workers rose by 360 to 20,049 from two weeks earlier, as more machinery and metal product makers were affected by the pandemic.
The number of unemployed people increased by 6,000 to 479,000 last month, although the number of people who quit or lost jobs to downsizing and closures both fell by 2,000, the DGBAS said.
Hotels and restaurants raised headcounts by 6,000, while recreational facilities added 3,000, the agency said.
Still, the job market lost 38,000 positions from the pre-pandemic level, suggesting that the outbreak continued to weigh on the market, Chen said.
By education breakdown, university graduates had the highest unemployment rate at 5.6 percent, followed by high-school graduates at 3.73 percent and people with graduate degrees at 3.36 percent, the DGBAS said.
People aged 20 to 24 had the highest unemployment rate at 12.36 percent, followed by the 15-to-19 age bracket at 7.76 percent, the 25-to-29 age group at 6.47 percent and the 30-to-34 age group at 3.81 percent, it said.
The nation’s unemployment rate is lower than South Korea’s 4.2 percent and Hong Kong’s 6.1 percent, but higher than Japan’s 2.8 percent.
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