Manufacturers and travel agencies placed more of their workers on unpaid leave programs over the past week, pushing the total number of furloughed workers to nearly 16,000, the Ministry of Labor said yesterday.
The number of workers on unpaid leave programs registered with the government rose to 15,809 as of Sunday, up 861 from 14,948 from April 23, while the number of employers with such programs grew to 2,154, up 110 from a week earlier, the ministry said.
Department of Labor Standards and Equal Employment Director Huang Wei-chen (黃維琛) said the manufacturing sector and the support services sector, which mostly consists of travel agencies, were the two main contributors to the increase in furloughed workers last week.
Photo: CNA
The export-oriented manufacturing sector continued to be affected by weakening global demand, and reported 7,207 furloughed workers as of Sunday, up 271 from a week earlier, Huang said.
The total was the most of any sector and accounted for 46 percent of all workers on official unpaid leave programs.
A total of 335 manufacturers had instituted furlough programs as of Sunday, including two companies based in the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) — which houses many tech giants — largely due to a decline in export orders, Huang said.
That number was up 11 from 324 as of April 23, ministry data showed.
Among the additional companies, an electronics component maker initiated an unpaid leave program involving about 160 workers, citing an unsteady supply of raw materials, Huang said.
The number of furloughed workers in the support services sector was 5,343 as of Sunday, the second highest among all sectors, ministry data showed.
In the past week, the number of workers placed on unpaid leave programs by local travel agencies rose more than 300, while the number of employers implementing such programs also increased 53 to 1,069, the ministry said.
As Taiwan has eased most of its COVID-19 border controls, the support services sector has shown signs of improving, and travel agencies with unpaid leave programs would likely use more workers in the coming months, Huang said.
In the past week, the number of furloughed workers in the retail and wholesale industry rose to 1,276 from 1,184, while in the lodging, and food and beverage sectors, the figure rose to 646 from 603, the ministry said.
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