The number of people employed in the nation’s industrial and service sectors increased in October as business activity picked up amid eased concerns over COVID-19, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) has said.
With domestic consumption on the rise, the hospitality and food and beverage industry, which had been hit hard by virus fears, saw the number of employees rise near the level before a local COVID-19 outbreak was detected in May, the agency said.
The number of people employed in the industrial and service sectors totaled about 8.15 million at the end of October, up 31,000, or 0.38 percent, from the previous month.
Photo: CNA
It was the fourth consecutive month of increase in employment, it said.
The number of people working in the hospitality and food and beverage industry rose 11,000 from a month earlier, while the number of employees in the support service industry, which largely comprises travel agencies, as well as the entertainment, and arts and leisure industries, rose 5,000 each, the data showed.
Employment figures have improved since the government downgraded a national COVID-19 alert level, easing restrictions on people’s movement, DGBAS Census Department Deputy Director Chen Hui-hsin (陳惠欣) said.
The Double Ten National Day holiday and government-issued NT$5,000 Quintuple Stimulus Vouchers also boosted domestic consumption, which caused businesses to hire more workers, she said.
The number of employees in the hospitality and food and beverage industry as of the end of October was only 3,000 fewer than the figure in April, as consumers have become more willing to spend, Chen said.
The number of people employed in the hospitality and food and beverage industry grew by about 10,000 per month in the past few months, she said.
However, the number of employees in the entertainment, and arts and leisure industries was still 16,000 fewer than the number in April, as restrictions on KTV parlors were not eased until October, Chen said.
Relaxing COVID-19 concerns also helped wages to grow, she said.
In October, the average monthly regular wage in the industrial and service sectors was NT$43,593, up NT$214, or 0.49 percent, from a month earlier, the DGBAS said.
The October figure was also up 2.21 percent from a year earlier, the agency added.
Average monthly earnings, which comprise regular wages and non-regular wages, such as overtime pay and bonuses, was NT$50,042, down 3.9 percent from a month earlier, but up 4.61 percent from a year earlier.
In the first 10 months of this year, the average regular wage and average monthly earnings rose 1.82 percent and 2.91 percent from the previous year respectively, to NT$43,088 and NT$56,387.
However, after inflationary adjustments, the average regular wage and average monthly earnings rose only 0.01 percent and 1.8 percent respectively.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which supplies advanced chips to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday reported NT$1.046 trillion (US$33.1 billion) in revenue for last quarter, driven by constantly strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips, falling in the upper end of its forecast. Based on TSMC’s financial guidance, revenue would expand about 22 percent sequentially to the range from US$32.2 billion to US$33.4 billion during the final quarter of 2024, it told investors in October last year. Last year in total, revenue jumped 31.61 percent to NT$3.81 trillion, compared with NT$2.89 trillion generated in the year before, according to
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
RSS