The unemployment rate rose for the fourth straight month to a five-year high of 4.37 percent last month, or 476,000 people, many of them middle-aged or older bread winners, who lost their jobs to business layoffs or closures, a Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) report showed yesterday.
With the nation heading toward a recession, the agency raised alarm for tough time ahead as more companies are expected to bow out of the market, pushing the jobless rate up further.
“The jobless rate gained 0.1 percentage points, or 12,000 people, to 4.37 percent last month, the highest since October 2004,” Huang Jiann-jong (黃建中), deputy director of DGBAS census bureau, told a media briefing.
The seasonally adjusted jobless rate increased 0.17 percentage points to 4.29 percent — the highest since March 2004, the report said.
Huang attributed the rising trend to the slackening economy at home and abroad and voiced worries about the potential social impact, noting that a sizable number of the unemployed are middle-aged wage earners who will have difficulty finding new jobs amid the structural change in the labor market.
An extra 21,000 people lost jobs to business closures or downsizing last month, compared with 14,000 people a month earlier, the report said.
“Put another way, the manufacturing industry dismissed 19,000 staffers in the last two months while hoteliers and retailers shed 11,000 and 5,000 employees respectively,” Huang said. “The layoffs appear to be a phenomenon that may have negative social implications. The government should pay close attention.”
While the jobless rate kept mounting, the real wage continued to head down.
The regular wage averaged NT$37,091 (US$1,110) in September, representing a record decline of 2.95 percent after being adjusted for inflation.
Huang said the real wage figure may look better for last month when inflationary pressures eased significantly. But he shied away from speculating on unemployment numbers with the economic landscape turning increasingly rugged.
Daw Jaw-yang (戴肇洋), a director at the Taiwan Research Institute (台綜院), said the jobless rate has yet to peak as it tends to be underestimated.
The economist noted that many workers are forced to take unpaid leave and are not counted as jobless though they have a hard time making ends meet.
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