Taiwan’s unemployment rate last month rose slightly to 3.34 percent, up 0.04 percent from January, as firms reduced temporary positions and some discontented workers moved on, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The latest data ended five consecutive months of decline, but reached the lowest level for the same month in 25 years, the agency said.
“The unemployment rate is expected to ease this month, as people who left their jobs have gradually found new positions,” Census Department Deputy Director Tan Wen-ling (譚文玲) said.
Photo: CNA
Tan attributed her forecast to improving labor participation rates, which climbed to a 36-year high of 59.33 percent last month, as more people, especially those aged 50 and older, re-entered the job market.
The government has encouraged older people to rejoin the workforce to enhance their financial standing and help ease labor shortages induced by Taiwan’s low birthrate.
The jobless rate after seasonal adjustments shed 0.02 percent to 3.35 percent, indicating a stable job market, Tan said.
The total number of people unemployed rose to 402,000, an increase of 6,000, or 1.39 percent, driven by 4,000 people who voluntarily left their jobs and services-oriented firms cutting temporary positions linked to the Lunar New Year holiday, the agency’s monthly report showed.
By education level, people with university degrees recorded the highest unemployment rate at 4.52 percent, followed by those with high-school or vocational-school education at 3.15 percent, it said.
Those with graduate degrees had an unemployment rate of 2.75 percent, while people who had completed only junior-high school or below had the lowest unemployment rate at 2.05 percent, it added.
Demographically, people between the ages of 20 and 24 had the highest unemployment rate, at 11.33 percent, followed by the 15 -to-19 age group, at 8.16 percent, and those aged 25 to 29, at 5.69 percent, the agency said.
People aged 35 and older had lower unemployment rates, ranging from 2.51 percent for those aged 35 to 39, to 2.2 percent for the 45-to-64 age group, it said.
The average unemployment period last month was 20.1 weeks, down 0.7 weeks from the previous month, while first-time jobseekers took an average of 21.7 weeks to secure employment, the agency said.
Tan said that a rising number of people aged 65 and older show an increasing willingness to return to the workforce as employers from different sectors become more accommodating of older people.
Still, underemployment worsened, rising to 7.58 percent, or 118,000 people, the agency found.
The sharp increase was largely due to unfavorable seasonality following the end of the Lunar New Year holiday, Tan said.
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