Labor force participation of middle-aged workers continues to rise in Taiwan, with people aged 45 to 64 participating in the nation’s workforce at a rate of 63.5 percent last year, compared with 63.2 percent a year earlier and up 3.2 percentage points from a decade ago, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said in a report on Wednesday.
In the first eight months of the year, the middle-aged worker participation rate rose further to 63.9 percent, but was still lower than the figure in major economies such as Japan, South Korea and the US, the report said.
Taiwan’s population continues to age and the National Development Council in August said that Taiwan is expected to become a super-aged society by 2025.
With a low birth rate further shrinking the nation’s labor force, the legislature in November last year passed the Act to Promote the Employment of Middle-aged and Senior Workers (中高齡及高齡者就業促進法) to improve the rights of workers aged 45 or older while bridging the labor force gap.
Compared with other age groups, the middle-aged demographic reported the lowest unemployment rate of 2.51 percent in August, the DGBAS reported on Sept. 22.
The 20 to 24 age group had the highest unemployment rate of 12.56 percent, followed by the 15 to 19 age group’s 8.09 percent, the 25 to 29 age group’s 6.54 percent and the 30 to 34 age group’s 3.95 percent.
The DGBAS said that among middle-aged workers, the rate of male labor participation, after a slump early in the century, has been rising since 2009, while that of female labor participation has been continuously increasing.
Last year, the male labor participation rate was 76.5 percent, compared with 51.1 percent for women, the report said.
The figures were 76.4 percent and 52.1 percent for male and female workers in the first eight months this year respectively, it added.
The DGBAS said that there is still room for improvement in terms labor participation of middle-aged people, compared with other major economies.
While the rate for the 45 to 49 age group in Taiwan was 84.7 percent last year, higher than in the US (83 percent) and South Korea (81.1 percent), the rates for the nation’s 50 to 59 and 60 to 64 age groups were lower than in other major economies, the report said.
While the rate for the 60 to 64 age group was 36.7 percent last year, the rate for the same age group was 71.9 percent in Japan, 62.1 percent in South Korea and 57.5 percent in the US, it said.
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