Employment situation improves in November

2014-12-24

Taiwan’s unemployment rate dropped 0.27 of a percentage point from a year ago to 3.89 percent in November, the lowest for the period in seven years, according to the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Dec. 22.

The number of jobless fell to 451,000, down 6,000 or 1.27 percent over the month before, representing the 20th consecutive month of annual improvement. Total employment reached 11.14 million, up 17,000 or 0.15 percent from October, with the time spent on a job search averaging 26.2 weeks.

“An improving local economy explains the encouraging figures,” a DGBAS official said. “With the coming of the year-end shopping season, we are also seeing an increasing number of job offerings in the market.”

The greatest job creation came from the services sector, with 74,000 new openings, up 1.14 percent from a year ago. The industrial and agricultural sectors came in second and third at 37,000 and 6,000, respectively.

For the first 11 months of the year, joblessness averaged 3.97 percent, down 0.22 of a percentage point to the best level since 2007.

With the global economy poised to grow steadily, the official shared expectations that Taiwan’s job market would continue recovering and that the annual unemployment rate would dip below 4 percent for the first time since the financial crisis of 2008.

In other statistics simultaneously released by the DGBAS, the country’s wages for those in industrial and services sectors averaged NT$42,198 (US$1,336) in October, up 0.59 percent from 2013.

For the first 10 months of the year, average wages overall reached NT$47,883, up 4.02 percent. The local financial services sector topped the chart in regular pay raises at 6.57 percent, followed by education services at 4.89 percent and hotel and food services at 4.02 percent.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=225440&CtNode=413)