Employment for the nation's physically and mentally challenged residents remains far from ideal, although improvements have been made in the areas of health coverage and education, a survey showed.
The results of a survey released on Friday conducted by academics at the commission of the Ministry of the Interior in October last year showed that the unemployment rate among physically and mentally challenged citizens stands at more than 10 percent, or about three times the national average.
The results of the survey were released by Wang Kuo-yu (王國羽), a professor at National Chung Cheng University's Department of Social Welfare.
Wang said employment has not significantly improved for the physically and mentally challenged in recent years despite government programs offering subsidies and job training programs.
He attributed the lack of progress to several factors, including an unwillingness among employers in established industries to hire disabled job seekers, difficult economic times, a lack of facilities for handicapped people and other structural problems.
Despite the lack of progress in finding employment opportunities, Wang said advances have been made in other areas, including health coverage and education.
For example, he said, all of Taiwan's 960,000 physically and mentally challenged people are now covered by the national health insurance system. The figure stood at just 92 percent in 2002.
In the area of education, government programs over the past decade have also significantly increased the number of physically and mentally challenged individuals entering college or university, Wang said.
He acknowledged, however, there was still room for improvement in education, with the survey showing that only 30 percent of mentally and physically challenged people in Taiwan have a high school diploma and their illiteracy rate is around 25 percent.
The average income of households with physically and mentally challenged members is also lower than the national average and about 30 percent of these families do not make enough money to cover their basic living expenses.
Only about 20,000 of the country's disabled citizens have an income above minimum wage, the survey found, indicating that many must rely on their families to make ends meet.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
RSS