May jobless rate at 15-year low in Taiwan

2015/06/24

Taiwan’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.62 percent in May, down 0.23 of a percentage point from the year before and the lowest for the month since 2000, according to the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics June 22.

The number of jobless fell to 420,000, down 1,000 or 0.24 percent from the previous month, while employment reached 11.18 million, up 9,000 or 0.08 percent from April. The time spent on job seeking averaged 25.9 weeks.

Lo Yi-ling, deputy director of the DGBAS Department of Census, attributed Taiwan’s stabilizing job market to the continuously improving local economy.

In particular, the unemployment rate for those with a university degree or above dropped to 4.47 percent, the lowest level in seven years, she said, adding that joblessness averaged 3.67 percent for the first five months of the year, down 0.31 of a percentage point to its best level in 15 years.

With the arrival of the graduation season, the official expects Taiwan’s unemployment rate to pick up between 0.2 and 0.4 of a percentage point in the following three months.

“Given that no economic crisis is on the horizon and the continually improving economy, the seasonal spike in joblessness will return to normal beginning September.”

Separately, the DGBAS released the country’s average wages for April.

Salaries for those in the industrial and services sectors averaged NT$43,343 (US$1,399) for the month, up 2.32 percent from 2014. Over the first four months of the year, average wages were NT$56,226, rising 4.57 percent to a record level for the period.

After taking inflation into account, real average wages were up 5.25 percent year on year to an all-time high.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=231804&ctNode=413)