Taiwan’s jobless rate fell 1.1 percentage points year on year to 4.29 percent in April, its lowest level since October 2008, according to the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics May 23.
“This improvement can be partly attributed to the seasonal effect,” said Chen Min, deputy director of the DGBAS Fourth Department. “Taiwan’s lowest unemployment rate tends to occur in either April or at the end of the year.”
The latest DGBAS tallies reveal that 477,000 were jobless, down 19.56 percent from a year ago. Chen said the change stems from Taiwan’s improving economy, which has seen 234,000 jobs created mainly in the manufacturing and retail and wholesale sectors.
Despite this strong showing, the DGBAS said Taiwan’s performance lagged behind those of Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea at 3.5 percent, 1.9 percent and 3.6 percent respectively.
A breakdown of the nation’s labor force numbers shows those with tertiary level education suffered the highest rate of unemployment at 4.8 percent. Individuals with senior high school education were No. 2 with 4.7 percent.
“As the job market looks set to remain tight, we expect to see milder unemployment when this year’s university graduates hit the job market in June,” Chen said.
The DGBAS official added that Taiwan’s salaries improved for the first quarter on the back of higher year-end bonuses.
“The average monthly wage climbed to NT$56,434 (US$1,945), an all-time record,” Chen said. “After adjustment of 1.28 percent for inflation, first quarter real salary growth was 3.46 percent.” (JSM)
Write to Meg Chang at meg.chang@mail.gio.gov.tw