The nation’s unemployment rate last month stood at 3.3 percent, marking a 0.02 percentage point fall from the previous month to the lowest in 25 years, as fewer people quit or lost their job to business downsizing or closures, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The jobless rate after seasonal adjustments was 3.37 percent, down 0.01 percentage points from December last year, it said.
“Overall indicators suggested a stable employment market in Taiwan,” Census Department Deputy Director Tan Wen-ling (譚文玲) said.
Photo: CNA
Tan said unemployment is likely to rise moderately this month due to post-holiday job transitions and a drop in temporary positions now that the Lunar New Year holiday is over.
The total number of unemployed individuals reached 396,000, down by 3,000 from one month earlier, after people who quit dropped by 2,000, the DGBAS said in a report.
The number of first-time jobseekers and job losses linked to business contractions and closures also declined by 1,000 each, it said.
By educational breakdown, people with university diplomas had the highest unemployment rate at 4.45 percent, followed by people with high-school or vocational-school education at 3.1 percent, the report said.
Those with graduate degrees had an unemployment rate of 2.7 percent, while people who had only completed junior high school or below had the lowest unemployment rate at 2.08 percent, it said.
Demographically, people aged between 20 and 24 had the highest unemployment rate of 11.14 percent, many of whom are first-time job seekers and need more time adjusting to the workforce, the report showed.
People aged between 15 and 19 had the second-highest unemployment rate of 7.94 percent, followed by the age group between 25 and 29, it said.
People older than 35 had an unemployment rate of below 2.5 percent, and the 45-to-65 age bracket consistently had the lowest jobless rate at 2.19 percent, it added.
The number of underemployed workers — those who work fewer than 35 hours a week because of economic reasons — totaled 109,000, a 15.94 percent fall from the previous month, thanks to an increase in temporary hiring, the report said.
The potential labor force — those not currently in the workforce, but willing and ready to work — stood at 138,000, shrinking by 5,000 from the preceding month, it said.
SETBACK: Apple’s India iPhone push has been disrupted after Foxconn recalled hundreds of Chinese engineers, amid Beijing’s attempts to curb tech transfers Apple Inc assembly partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has recalled about 300 Chinese engineers from a factory in India, the latest setback for the iPhone maker’s push to rapidly expand in the country. The extraction of Chinese workers from the factory of Yuzhan Technology (India) Private Ltd, a Hon Hai component unit, in southern Tamil Nadu state, is the second such move in a few months. The company has started flying in Taiwanese engineers to replace staff leaving, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named, as the
The prices of gasoline and diesel at domestic fuel stations are to rise NT$0.1 and NT$0.4 per liter this week respectively, after international crude oil prices rose last 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 rise to NT$27.3, NT$28.8 and NT$30.8 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to rise to NT$26.2 per liter at CPC stations and NT$26 at Formosa pumps, they said. The announcements came after international crude oil prices
SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) is weighing whether to add a life insurance business to its portfolio, but would tread cautiously after completing three acquisitions in quick succession, president Stanley Chu (朱士廷) said yesterday. “We are carefully considering whether life insurance should play a role in SinoPac’s business map,” Chu told reporters ahead of an earnings conference. “Our priority is to ensure the success of the deals we have already made, even though we are tracking some possible targets.” Local media have reported that Mercuries Life Insurance Co (三商美邦人壽), which is seeking buyers amid financial strains, has invited three financial
CAUTION: Right now, artificial intelligence runs on faith, not productivity and eventually, the risk of a bubble will emerge,’ TIER economist Gordon Sun said Taiwanese manufacturers turned more optimistic last month, ending a five-month streak of declining sentiment as concerns over US tariffs, currency volatility and China’s overcapacity began to ease, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) said yesterday. The manufacturing business confidence index rose 1.17 points from June to 86.8, its first rebound since February. TIER economist Gordon Sun (孫明德) attributed the uptick to fading trade uncertainties, a steadier New Taiwan dollar and reduced competitive pressure from Chinese producers. Taiwan’s semiconductor industry is unlikely to face significant damage from Washington’s ongoing probe into semiconductors, given the US’ reliance on Taiwanese chips to power artificial
RSS