Taiwan unemployment falls to 15-year low in 2015

2016/01/25

Taiwan’s jobless rate was 3.78 percent in 2015, down 0.18 of a percentage point from 12 months earlier to its lowest level in 15 years, according to the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Jan. 22.

The latest DGBAS statistics revealed that this was the best result for the period since 2000, with the number of unemployed falling to 440,000, a decrease of 17,000 or 3.72 percent from a year ago.

Those with jobs tallied 11.2 million, up 119,000 or 1.08 percent, while the average time spent job-seeking was 25 weeks, or 0.9 of a week less than before. The labor participation rate went up 0.11 of a percentage point to 58.65 percent, the highest since 1996.

“Such encouraging numbers indicate that while the local job market was under pressure from a slack economy, the situation has not been as severe as anticipated,” said Chang Yun-yun, deputy director of the DGBAS Department of Census.

Taiwan’s services sector is the biggest contributor to employment creation, hiring an additional 83,000 workers, or an increase of 1.26 percent from the year before. It is followed by the industrial and agricultural sectors at 31,000 and 7,000, respectively.

This positive labor market sentiment is reflected in the average wages of the industrial and services sectors, which picked up 2.69 percent in the first 11 months of 2015 to a record NT$48,650 (US$1,438).

“After taking inflation into account, the real wage of NT$46,937 was the second highest in history, with the 3.05 percent gain the best in five years,” Chang said, attributing the strong showing to additional year-end bonuses handed out early in 2015.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=241613&ctNode=2194&mp=9)