The nation’s unemployment rate slid 0.02 percentage points to 3.31 percent in January, the lowest for the same period in 24 years, as fewer jobs were lost owing to business downsizing or closures, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The reading after seasonal adjustments held steady at 3.39 percent and likely rose slightly last month, as companies end temporary positions and discontented workers tend to switch jobs after the Lunar New Year holiday, Census Department Deputy Director Chen Hui-hsin (陳惠欣) said, adding that the unemployment rate usually sees a seasonal pickup of 0.03 to 0.08 percentage points in February.
The effect might be delayed this year due to the relative late timing of the holiday, Chen said.
Photo: CNA
The DGBAS for the first time reported on the unemployment rate for the past four weeks, in line with the International Labor Organization’s requirement.
At 3.35 percent, it marked a decline of 0.03 percentage points from one month earlier, she said.
January’s jobless population stood at 397,000, a decrease of 2,000 from the level in December, as the number of people who lost jobs due to business downsizing and closures shrank by 5,000, more than muting an increase of 2,000 in the number of people who quit, the agency said.
Overall, Taiwan’s job market has returned to pre-COVID-19 levels, judging by the cumulative decline of 51,000 in the number of people who lost jobs to business downsizing and closures since July 2022, when Taiwan ended major gathering restrictions, Chen said.
University graduates had the highest unemployment rate at 4.51 percent, followed by high-school graduates at 3.1 percent, and people with graduate degrees at 2.52 percent, the agency said.
People with junior-high school or lower education had the lowest jobless rate of 2.08 percent, it found.
By demographic breakdown, people aged 20 to 24 had the highest unemployment rate at 11.3 percent, followed by those aged 15 to 19 at 8.24 percent, and those aged 25 to 29 at 5.81 percent, the agency said.
The jobless rate for older people aged 45 to 64 was the lowest at 2.08 percent, it said.
The unemployed period stretched longer to 20.9 weeks on average, with first-time jobseekers reporting greater difficulty landing positions at 24.3 weeks, the DGBAS said.
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