There were a total of 127,732 Thai workers in Taiwan last year, down 14,933 from 2001, according to government statistics released yesterday.
Tallies released by the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) show that workers from Thailand are still the largest group of alien laborers in Taiwan. Thai workers are followed by 91,132 from Indonesia, 72,779 from the Philippines and 12,916 from Vietnam.
The CLA attributed the decline in the number of Thai workers to a freeze on new foreign labor for major public works and private investment projects -- in which Thai laborers are the leading force -- as a result of the sagging economy.
The number of Indonesian workers was up by 13,320 from 2000, according to the CLA.
The CLA said the increase was mainly due to greater demand from Taiwan families for foreign care-givers and domestic maids in an industry in which Indonesian laborers play a dominant role.
The number of Filipino workers posted a drop of 3,129, while the number of laborers from Vietnam were up by 5,170, according to the CLA tallies.
The organization said the large number of Filipino workers who escape from their workplaces had resulted in a shift by Taiwan business owners to hire workers from Indonesia and Vietnam.
CLA statistics show that there were a total of 304,605 foreign workers in Taiwan as of the end of last year, down by 21,910 from the 2000 level.
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