The number of furloughed employees on Wednesday jumped by 6,262 from seven days earlier, bringing the total number of workers on unpaid leave to 14,821, as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to affect the economy, the Ministry of Labor said on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the number of companies that have implemented unpaid leave programs reached 588, up 220 from seven days earlier, ministry data showed.
The number of furloughed employees hit the highest level since December 2011, when 13,034 workers were on unpaid leave, while the number of employers with unpaid leave programs was the highest since September 2009, when it hit 552, the data showed.
Taipei and New Taipei City registered the highest number of furloughed workers during the week at 6,727 — including 4,390 employees at 162 companies in Taipei, and 2,337 workers at 137 firms in New Taipei City.
Tainan reported 1,537 furloughed workers at 50 companies, while Taoyuan registered 1,054 at 40 firms, Kaohsiung 783 at 45 enterprises and Taichung 444 at 21, the data showed.
The manufacturing industry registered the highest number of furloughed workers at 4,874, followed by the hospitality and food and beverage industry at 4,495, and 2,101 in the wholesale and retail sector.
The number of furloughed workers in Hsinchu Science Park, one of the nation’s most important tech production hubs, rose to 704 in the week as of Wednesday, about 10 times that from a week earlier.
The latest figures showed that the pandemic has begun affecting supply chains and disrupting manufacturing operations, Department of Labor Standards and Equal Employment Deputy Director Huang Wei-chen (黃維琛) said.
The ministry this month started releasing weekly data on the number of furloughed workers instead of biweekly to better reflect the real workplace situation and to quickly identify people in need, Huang added.
Most of the companies implementing unpaid leave are small enterprises that employ fewer than 50 people, the ministry said.
Unpaid leave programs typically last for fewer than three months, with employees taking five to eight days off per month, it said.
TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT: A US Air Force KC-135 tanker came less than 1,000 feet of an EVA plane and was warned off by a Taipei air traffic controller, a report said A US aerial refueling aircraft came very close to an EVA Airways jet in the airspace over southern Taiwan, a military aviation news Web site said. A report published by Alert 5 on Tuesday said that automatic dependent surveillance–broadcast (ADS-B) data captured by planfinder.net on Wednesday last week showed a US Air Force KC-135 tanker “coming less than 1,000 feet [305m] vertically with EVA Air flight BR225 as both aircraft crossed path south of Taiwan” that morning. The report included an audio recording of a female controller from the Taipei air traffic control center telling the unidentified aircraft that it was
A US aircraft carrier group led by the USS Theodore Roosevelt has entered the South China Sea to promote “freedom of the seas,” the US military said yesterday, as tensions between China and Taiwan raise concerns in Washington. US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement that the strike group entered the South China Sea on Saturday, the same day Taiwan reported a large incursion of Chinese bombers and fighter jets into its air defense identification zone near the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). The US military said the carrier strike group was in the South China Sea, a large part of which
STRATEGIC MISTAKE: Beijing’s deployment of aircraft near Taiwan proves the ‘China threat theory’ that sees it attempting to destabilize the region, an analyst said China on Saturday and yesterday sent a record number of military aircraft into the nation’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), in what analysts said was an attempt to flex its military might for US President Joe Biden. Thirteen Chinese warplanes flew into Taiwan’s southwestern ADIZ on Saturday and 15 entered yesterday, the highest number observed in a single day this year, the Ministry of National Defense said. On Saturday, eight Xian H-6K bombers, four Shenyang J-16 fighters and a Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, entered the ADIZ, while yesterday there were two Y-8s, two Su-30s, four J-16s, six J-10 fighters and a Y-8 reconnaissance
DISPOSING MYTHS: A new constitution would better reflect reality, as the current one was drafted ‘in and for China,’ without the consent of Taiwanese, advocates said Independence advocates yesterday launched the Taiwan New Constitution Alliance to promote drafting a new, localized constitution. “This is a historic moment for Taiwan. Drafting a new constitution is the most important task Taiwanese face,” veteran independence advocate Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏) said at the inaugural event in Taipei. “Although the Democratic Progressive Party is in power, its authority is based on the Republic of China [ROC] Constitution, which has no connection to Taiwan,” said the 95-year-old Koo, a former presidential adviser. “The historic task of drafting a new constitution depends on efforts by all Taiwanese,” Koo said. “A constitution for a sovereign, independent Taiwan
RSS