The current record high unemployment rate and its attendant problems pose a truly difficult challenge for the government, which has now been in office for nearly a year. Since crises are usually interpreted as turning points, the government may as well take advantage of the opportunity to prove that it did not gain political power by chance. However, the goods it has offered so far are like old wine in new bottles. Why are the government's trademarks of novel thinking and proactive methods disappearing?
The government has proposed NT$810 billion in public construction projects to create jobs by expanding public investment. Such projects can at best create approximately 100,000 jobs. Yet given the current unemployed population of a staggering 400,000 and the unpredictable unemployment figures in the future, the project would be just a bandage covering a gaping wound. While this may be an exaggeration, it nevertheless highlights the severity of the problem.
How should we strike a balance between rehabilitating traditional businesses while emphasizing the importance of high-tech industries? How can small and medium-sized businesses solve their managerial problems without the government's assistance, when the government recognizes they need its help to increase their credit insurance to solve capital difficulties? Is the trend of investment liberalization and the government's "no haste, be patient" (
The most important question is whether the record-high unemployment rate is really a result of factory closures, an exodus of industries, or the fact that no new factories are being set up. Or are there other factors?
Put simply, the development mechanism Taiwan has established as the bedrock of its national survival over the past 50 years has also created problems in politics, the economy and society. Taiwan's superficial economic structure, vigorous small and medium-sized labor-intensive businesses, the loose Labor Standards Law (
As for efforts to make the labor market more active and adjust it along with market functions, we can see the urgency of arranging more vocational training programs and helping workers change jobs. But there are restrictions. Although the employment sections take up several pages of newspapers every day, can vacancies in the high-tech or service industries be taken up by middle-aged or the older unemployed? The main solution may lie in the cultivation of the labor market.
Moreover, the establishment of a social security system to deal with unemployment is also a stopgap solution. Such a bailout should be coordinated with social security or other public service agencies to provide an integrated network to enable the government to effectively tackle unemployment problems, which affect both the individual and their families.
To deal with the unemployment problem, we may have to conduct a comprehensive review of national development and political factors. Otherwise, we may miss an opportunity to improve the situation, leaving a stain on the government's record and great suffering on the part of the people.
Kuo Teng-tsung is an associate professor at the department of social work, Tzu Chi University.
Translated by Jackie Lin
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