The unemployment rate last month rose for a 10th month to its highest level — 5.75 percent — since record-keeping began in 1978.
The number of unemployed hit 624,000 after more business closures and the post-holiday effect, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
Meanwhile, the seasonally adjusted figure rose for an 11th month to a record 5.63 percent, indicating job losses increased even though officials and pundits voiced optimism that the decline would slow down this month because of rush orders for electronic products.
“The jobless rate gained 0.44 percentage points, or 46,000 people, to 5.75 percent in February, the highest in [survey] history,” DGBAS Deputy Director Huang Jiann-jong (黃建中) told an afternoon press briefing.
Huang attributed the hike primarily to more business closures and the loss of short-term jobs after the Lunar New Year, which added 38,000 people to the jobless rolls.
He voiced greater concern about the sustained rise in the real unemployment tally, saying that the number increased 0.3 percentage points to 5.63 percent last month.
“The trend showed the job market contracted further,” Huang said. “A reversal is unlikely unless the [seasonally] adjusted increase is kept under 0.1 percentage points.”
Huang said the unemployment rate would have been above 6.1 percent if the government had not adopted job-creation programs.
Public sectors have hired an extra 77,000 contract workers since October, the DGBAS report showed.
Meanwhile, “discouraged” job-seekers stood at 189,000 while people working 16 hours or less a week reached 99,000, pushing the broad jobless rate to 7.32 percent, the survey said. Unemployment affects some 1.36 million people, the statistics showed.
Huang said the unemployment rate might decelerate this month with an inflow of last-minute export orders.
Cheng Cheng-mount (鄭貞茂), chief economist at Citigroup Inc Taiwan, agreed: “Rush orders have caused some large tech firms to scale down their headcount reduction plans, suggesting the rise in unemployment rate could slow in coming months.”
The job creation program is expected to create another 50,000 jobs this year, Cheng said in a note.
The total number of employed people fell 79,000 to 10.22 million last month, the biggest drop since January 2002, the report said.
The average monthly take-home wage dipped for a fourth month to NT$35,130 (NT$1,039) in January, down 0.79 percent from last month, the report said.
Also See: Sales down in retail, bar sectors
‘UPHOLDING PEACE’: Taiwan’s foreign minister thanked the US Congress for using a ‘creative and effective way’ to deter Chinese military aggression toward the nation The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, aimed at deterring Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by threatening to publish information about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials’ “illicit” financial assets if Beijing were to attack. The act would also “restrict financial services for certain immediate family of such officials,” the text of the legislation says. The bill was introduced in January last year by US representatives French Hill and Brad Sherman. After remarks from several members, it passed unanimously. “If China chooses to attack the free people of Taiwan, [the bill] requires the Treasury secretary to publish the illicit
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
A senior US military official yesterday warned his Chinese counterpart against Beijing’s “dangerous” moves in the South China Sea during the first talks of their kind between the commanders. Washington and Beijing remain at odds on issues from trade to the status of Taiwan and China’s increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions, but they have sought to re-establish regular military-to-military talks in a bid to prevent flashpoint disputes from spinning out of control. Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, and Wu Yanan (吳亞男), head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command, talked via videoconference. Paparo “underscored the importance
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
RSS