Driving away monkeys, catching mosquitoes or inspecting public toilets: Amid the deepening global recession, Taiwan's growing army of jobless are turning to some odd ways of making ends meet.
The government has so far created some 65,000 temporary positions as part of a stimulus package worth US$15 billion in business incentives, infrastructure projects and shopping coupons to shore up the economy.
The sweeping plans, however, inspire little confidence in the unemployed, such as carpenter Lin Chih-lung, whose search for work in the five months since he lost his job has become increasingly desperate and fruitless.
PHOTO: PATRICK LIN, AFP
Lin, 42, has run up debts of nearly NT$200,000 as he struggles to support his wife, who is also jobless, and their disabled child since being sacked by a factory outside Taipei.
He's now in a downward spiral of having to borrow more money just to pay the bills. He fears his age and lack of education — he only finished junior high school — make it unlikely he will ever find a job.
Nor is he eligible for unemployment benefits, which kick in after a year of work, as he was sacked after only six months in the job.
“Now toilet inspectors require college degrees and delivery men have to graduate from senior high school. I really don't know what to do anymore. I seem to run up against a wall everywhere I look,” he said. “I can only rely on loans and disabled welfare for my son for now and hope that the economy will get better.”
CONTRACTION
His wish is unlikely to come true any time soon, as the economy shrank by a record 8.36 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.
For this year, GDP is predicted to contract by 2.97 percent because of sharp falls in the export sector and a subsequent rise in unemployment.
The most recent figures show that 578,000 people were out of work in January, which drove up the jobless rate to 5.31 percent — the second-highest ever after August 2002's 5.35 percent.
These days throngs of job seekers queue at government placement centers and job fairs across the country, often to no avail as supply far outstrips demand.
“Some 42,000 people showed up at our last job fair in December but only 2,000 vacancies were up for grabs,” said Ryan Wu, spokesman for an online job agency.
Last month, Taipei County's environmental protection bureau was overwhelmed with more than 1,000 applications for 72 short-term openings to inspect public toilets and supervise garbage disposal and recycling.
In Kaohsiung, phones at the economic planning bureau were ringing off the hook when news came out that it planned to hire 28 temporary workers to drive away wild monkeys from residential areas and crack down on people feeding them.
“Jobless problems have spread to all sectors,” Wu said. “The situation will worsen in the summer with new graduates crowding the job market, as half of last year's graduates have not been able to find work.”
PRESSURE
The economic woes have stepped up pressure on President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who swept to power on promises to improve the flagging economy.
Ma vowed to achieve 6 percent annual economic growth and reduce unemployment to 3 percent before his term ends in 2012.
As the global financial crisis deepens, however, his government has adjusted its target to keep the jobless rate below 4.5 percent this year through a string of stimulus measures aimed at boosting demand and consumption.
But observers are skeptical about this approach.
“Those temporary government jobs are better than nothing but they are probably more helpful in terms of cutting jobless rates than solving real problems,” Wu said.
Chu Hau-min (朱浩民), an economics professor at National Chengchi University, called for more subsidies for the needy rather than rashly expanding public infrastructure and giving out shopping vouchers.
The government in January handed out around NT3,600 in shopping vouchers to each resident in a US$2.3 billion program expected to contribute 0.64 percent to GDP.
“As the global economy is unlikely to recover soon, the government should be prepared for a long-term fight instead of spending massively on everything,” Chu said.
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