The number of workers on formal unpaid leave in Taiwan in the second half of last month rose slightly from the first half, with the manufacturing sector feeling the most pinch, according to the Ministry of Labor.
Data released by the ministry on Friday showed the number of workers placed on furlough rose by 253 from 15 days earlier to 7,371 as of the end of last month, marking an increase from a three-month low seen on Dec. 15, when the number fell by 2,035 at the end of November due to an increase of rush orders.
The number of employers with unpaid leave programs in place rose by seven from Dec. 15 to 385 at the end of last month, the data indicated.
Photo: CNA
Huang Chi-ya (黃琦雅), head of the ministry’s Department of Labor Standards and Equal
Employment, told reporters that the metal and machinery industries continued to report the largest number of furloughed workers with 5,140 stood down, accounting for about 70 percent of the total in the export-oriented manufacturing sector.
During the 15-day period, a total of 6,409 workers were furloughed due to US tariffs on Taiwanese goods, compared with 6,339 recorded in middle of last month, according to the ministry data.
Analysts said the rebound from a three-month low in furloughed workers showed the manufacturing sector remained haunted by the US tariff policies.
However, the domestic demand-oriented service sector stayed relatively resilient, ministry data showed, with the number of furloughed workers in the wholesale and retail industry falling to 301 from 329 on Dec. 15.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
RSS