The number of furloughed workers dropped by 748 in the first week of this month, with the manufacturing sector seeing the largest decline, data released yesterday by the Ministry of Labor showed.
The number of workers who were on unpaid leave after reaching agreements with their employers totaled 3,703 as of yesterday, down from the 4,451 reported on Monday last week, the data showed.
During the same period, the number of companies that implemented unpaid leave programs fell by 62 to 344, the data showed.
Photo: CNA
The unpaid leave program allows employers to have employees take time off each month without pay, but they must give them their monthly minimum wage.
At its peak, more than 200,000 workers were on leave under the program in early 2009 during the global financial crisis.
The number spiked again to more than 30,000 in June last year, as the economy came under pressure from COVID-19 fears, which especially hurt retailers, food and beverage outlets and the travel sector.
That number has gradually slid since then to just more than 10,000 by November and fewer than 5,000 since last month.
In the first week of this month, the manufacturing sector saw the biggest drop in furloughed workers, down more than 500 from the previous week, Department of Labor Standards and Equal Employment Director Huang Wei-chen (黃維琛) said.
However, the manufacturing sector still had the most workers furloughed as of yesterday at 1,197, ahead of the transportation/warehousing sector at 921 and the support services sector at 764.
Huang said the pandemic continues to affect the economy, in particular travel agencies and transportation service providers due to border controls, but the number of furloughed workers remains on the decline in the past few months.
Most of the companies implementing unpaid leave schemes are asking their employees to take nine to 12 days of leave per month, but travel agencies are requiring their workers to take at least 15 days of extra leave per month, Huang said.
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