Taiwanese worked more hours than people in all but three other countries in the world last year, Ministry of Labor data showed.
Singapore placed first in average hours worked among the 40 economies surveyed, with an average of 2,288 hours per worker last year, the data showed.
The city-state was followed by Colombia with 2,172 hours — based on 2019 data — and Mexico with 2,124 hours, it showed.
Taiwan came in fourth, with 2,021 hours, it showed.
South Korean workers clocked the third-most hours in Asia, with 1,908 hours, followed by Japan with 1,598 hours, it showed.
However, compared with 2019, the survey found a notable decrease in average hours worked in all surveyed countries.
Department of Labor Standards and Equal Employment Deputy Director Huang Wei-chen (黃維琛) said that the trend was due mainly to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent disease prevention measures.
The nation’s high number was influenced by part-time workers being factored in to the calculation, he said.
The ministry included part-time workers because of their relatively small share in the nation’s workforce of 3.7 percent, Huang said.
However, their share last year increased from 3.2 percent in 2019, as sectors of the economy that typically offer part-time work, such as food delivery, gained traction, he said.
A global part-time work trend might also have been due to pressure on workers amid the pandemic, Huang said.
Unemployed rose in most of the surveyed countries, with the exception of Italy and France, where the jobless rate dropped 0.8 percentage points and 0.4 percentage points respectively, he said.
Taiwan’s increase in the unemployment rate was the lowest among the countries, at 0.1 percentage points, Huang said.
Job markets in Asian countries were overall sluggish, while the US and Canada posted the largest jobless rate rises, at 4.4 percentage points and 3.8 percentage points respectively, he said.
Taiwan’s per capita GDP was US$28,371, up 9.4 percent from 2019, the data showed.
China was the only other country that posted an increase in per capita GDP, at 2.8 percent, while the figure in all other surveyed countries fell, it showed.
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