The unemployment rate last month rose from the month before as expected, with more first-time jobseekers — mainly school-leavers — unable to find work, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The unemployment rate — a key indicator of economic performance — climbed for the second consecutive month to 4.21 percent last month, from 4.12 percent in May, the DGBAS said in its monthly report.
“The jobless rate last month showed a seasonal effect,” DGBAS Deputy Director Chen Min (陳憫) told a press conference.
Chen said the data reflected historical trends with the graduation season, and an influx of first-time jobseekers, often pushing up the unemployment rate from May to August.
The latest data showed that 477,000 people were unemployed last month, an increase of 11,000 from the previous month, with the number of first-time jobseekers failing to get a job rising by 13,000.
However, Chen said the labor market outlook in near future remained stable, as the number of workers losing their jobs through business closures or downsizing fell 22,000 in the first half.
Cheng Cheng-mount (鄭貞茂), chief economist at Citigroup in Taipei, told the Taipei Times that he expects the labor market to remain steady in the second half.
The seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate — a more accurate indicator of the long-term trend — which dropped 0.01 percentage points from a month ago to 4.24 percent, confirmed Cheng’s views.
On the working front, the number of those with jobs averaged 10.82 million in the first six months, up 1.63 percent from a year earlier, marking the lowest rise in three years, which indicated the conservative attitude of employers generating new positions, DGBAS said.
Henry Ho (何啟聖), public relations director of 1111 Job Bank (1111, 人力銀行), said in a note that a slowing supply of job openings could continue to drive up the number of first-time jobseekers failing to receive an employment offer over the next few months.
The DGBAS also unveiled the latest salary data yesterday which showed that the average national monthly salary in May was NT$37,419, up 1.83 percent from a year ago.
The average monthly salary was NT$37,262 in the January-to-May period, up 1.88 percent from a year earlier, DGBAS statistics showed.
However, when bonuses and other forms of compensation are included, the average monthly remuneration package was NT$50,050, which was a 0.71 percent markdown from a year earlier, reflecting the fact that employers were awarding lower year-end bonuses and other vocational rewards this year with the global economic slowdown impacting their business, the DGBAS said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
A TAIWAN DEAL: TSMC is in early talks to fully operate Intel’s US semiconductor factories in a deal first raised by Trump officials, but Intel’s interest is uncertain Broadcom Inc has had informal talks with its advisers about making a bid for Intel Corp’s chip-design and marketing business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Nothing has been submitted to Intel and Broadcom could decide not to pursue a deal, according to the Journal. Bloomberg News earlier reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is in early talks for a controlling stake in Intel’s factories at the request of officials at US President Donald Trump’s administration, as the president looks to boost US manufacturing and maintain the country’s leadership in critical technologies. Trump officials raised the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
CHIP BOOM: Revenue for the semiconductor industry is set to reach US$1 trillion by 2032, opening up opportunities for the chip pacakging and testing company, it said ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) services, yesterday launched a new advanced manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, aiming to meet growing demand for emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The US$300 million facility is a critical step in expanding ASE’s global footprint, offering an alternative for customers from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China to assemble and test chips outside of Taiwan amid efforts to diversify supply chains. The plant, the company’s fifth in Malaysia, is part of a strategic expansion plan that would more than triple
RSS