Travel agencies in Taiwan reported the highest growth in the number of workers on official unpaid leave programs over the past week, as the number of furloughed workers continued to rise amid record numbers of local COVID-19 infections, the Ministry of Labor said yesterday.
Ministry data showed the number of furloughed workers in the support service industry, largely comprised of travel agencies, was 8,677 as of Saturday, up 272 from a report released on Monday last week.
The number of employers in the support service industry with furlough programs in place also rose during the week from 1,378 to 1,412, the data showed.
Photo: CNA
Nationwide, the number of workers on unpaid leave rose to 14,805, up 407 from a week earlier, the ministry said, adding that the number of companies with furlough programs in place also rose by 85 from a week earlier to 2,355.
Labor Conditions and Equal Employment Division deputy head Wang Chin-jung (王金蓉) said the increase in furloughed workers in the support service industry was the major factor driving the increase in workers on furlough last week.
Most of the travel agencies that introduced furlough programs over the past week were small and medium-sized firms, Wang said.
The support service industry had the highest number of furloughed workers as well as the largest number of employers introducing unpaid leave programs.
The number of furloughed workers in the manufacturing sector went against the trend, falling from 1,357 to 1,259 after a machinery provider ended its furlough program, taking about 200 workers off of unpaid leave, Wang said.
However, the number of employers in the sector with furlough programs in place rose from 104 to 109, the ministry said.
A semiconductor supplier also placed about half of its 200 employees on unpaid leave last week due to a shortage of production material supplies, she added.
The surge in domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases had raised concerns about its effects on hospitality and wholesale businesses, but these sectors only had a rise of about 40 and 50 furloughed workers respectively during the week, Wang said.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to