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.
A Keelung high school on Saturday night apologized for using a picture containing a Chinese flag on the cover of the senior yearbook, adding that it has recalled the books and pledged to provide students new ones before graduation on Thursday. Of 309 Affiliated Keelung Maritime Senior High School of National Taiwan Ocean University graduates, 248 had purchased the yearbook. Some students said that the printer committed an outrageous error in including the picture, while others said that nobody would notice such a small flag on the cover. Other students said that they cared more about the photographs of classmates and what was
GOING INTERNATIONAL: Rakuten Girls squad leader Ula Shen said she was surprised that baseball fans outside of Taiwan not only knew of them, but also knew their names Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Oakland Athletics on Saturday hosted its first Taiwanese Heritage Day event at the Oakland Coliseum with a performance by Taiwanese cheerleading squad the Rakuten Girls and a video message from Vice President William Lai (賴清德). The Rakuten Girls, who are the cheerleaders for the CPBL’s Rakuten Monkeys, performed in front of a crowd of more than 2,000 people, followed by a prerecorded address by Lai about Taiwan’s baseball culture and democratic spirit. Taiwanese pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸), who was signed by the Athletics earlier this year, was also present. Mizuki Lin (林襄), considered a “baseball cheerleading goddess” by Taiwanese
WAY OF THE RUKAI: ‘Values deemed worthy often exist amid discomfort, so when people go against the flow, nature becomes entwined with our lives,’ a student said “Run, don’t walk” after your dreams, Nvidia cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) told National Taiwan University (NTU) graduates yesterday, as several major universities held in-person graduation ceremonies for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. “What will you create? Whatever it is, run after it. Run, don’t walk. Remember, either you’re running for food, or you are running from becoming food. Oftentimes, you can’t tell which. Either way, run,” he said. Huang was one of several tech executives addressing graduating students at Taiwanese universities. National Chengchi University held two ceremonies, with alumnus Patrick Pan (潘先國), who is head of Taiwan
A 14-legged giant isopod is the highlight of a new dish at a ramen restaurant in Taipei and it has people lining up — both for pictures and for a bite from this bowl of noodles. Since “The Ramen Boy” launched the limited-edition noodle bowl on Monday last week, declaring in a social media post that it had “finally got this dream ingredient,” more than 100 people have joined a waiting list to dine at the restaurant. “It is so attractive because of its appearance — it looks very cute,” said the 37-year-old owner of the restaurant, who wanted to be