The nation’s unemployment rate last month rose 0.08 percentage points to 3.39 percent, as firms shed temporary staffers and discontented workers chose to move on, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
Despite the mild uptick, the latest jobless rate represented the lowest level for the same period in 24 years, Census Department Deputy Director Chen Hui-hsin (陳惠欣) said.
However, the increase meant the end of five consecutive months of decline, Chen said.
Photo: CNA
“It is common for companies to end temporary positions intended to meet the pickup in demand over the Lunar New Year holiday,” Chen said, adding that discontented workers usually resign and look for a new job after collecting their year-end bonus.
The reading after seasonal adjustments increased 0.01 percentage points to 3.4 percent, suggesting a stable market, Chen said.
The newly launched unemployment rate for the past four weeks grew 0.07 percentage points to 3.42 percent, affirming the upward trajectory, DGBAS data showed.
The domestic job market is stable and healthy, Chen said.
Taiwan’s GDP growth is expected to expand more than 3 percent this year, much faster than last year’s 1.31 percent, as global demand for technology products is likely to continue increasing following several quarters of inventory adjustments.
Taiwan is home to the world’s largest suppliers of advanced chips and artificial intelligence servers, as well as other critical electronic components used in smartphones, notebook computers and vehicles.
The number of unemployed people stood at 406,000, a 2.28 percent increase from January, or 9,000 people, the agency said.
The number of people who resigned and people who were let go following business tightening and closures each increased 3,000, the agency’s monthly report showed.
People with a university degree were the demographic with the highest unemployment rate of 4.53 percent, followed by senior-high school diplomates at 3.21 percent and junior college graduates at 2.72 percent, it said.
Among those with a graduate degree the unemployment rate was 2.6 percent, while those with a junior-high-school diploma or lower education had the smallest unemployment rate of 2.17 percent, it said.
People aged 20 to 24 had the highest unemployment rate of 11.55 percent, followed by those aged 15 to 19 at 8.43 percent and 25 to 29 at 5.80 percent, the agency said.
People aged 30 to 34 had an unemployment rate of 3.33 percent and those aged 45 to 64 had the lowest unemployment rate of 2.19 percent, it said.
The unemployment period averaged 21 weeks, longer by 0.1 weeks from a month earlier, the agency said, adding that job-hunting was longer for first-time jobseekers at 22.9 weeks.
Taiwan’s headline unemployment rate is relatively high compared with other nations in the region such as South Korea, 3.2 percent; Hong Kong, 2.7 percent; and Japan, 2.3 percent; the DGBAS said.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
FACTORY SHIFT: While Taiwan produces most of the world’s AI servers, firms are under pressure to move manufacturing amid geopolitical tensions Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) started building artificial intelligence (AI) servers in India’s south, the latest boon for the rapidly growing country’s push to become a high-tech powerhouse. The company yesterday said it has started making the large, powerful computers in Pondicherry, southeastern India, moving beyond products such as laptops and smartphones. The Chinese company would also build out its facilities in the Bangalore region, including a research lab with a focus on AI. Lenovo’s plans mark another win for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tries to attract more technology investment into the country. While India’s tense relationship with China has suffered setbacks