The unemployment problem is expected to increase next month, with a higher jobless rate, increasing hidden unemployment and deteriorating work environment, even though last month’s unemployment rate was just below 6 percent, experts said.
Council of Labor Affairs Minister Jennifer Wang (王如玄) set a goal at the beginning of the year to keep this year’s average unemployment rate below 4.5 percent.
Labor activists were critical, saying conditions would not improve as fast as officials were hoping and the government was not being realistic.
“The job outlook is not very good for the coming year,” said Son Yu-lian (孫友聯), secretary-general of the Taiwan Labour Front. “Expecting to keep the year’s unemployment rate below 4.5 percent is too optimistic.”
The unemployment rate was expected to be at least 5.5 percent this year and next month’s jobless rate will most likely exceed 6 percent because the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said last month’s jobless rate was 5.94 percent, Son said.
Aside from increasing numbers of unemployed, there has also been a steep climb in the number of people not participating in the workforce, he said.
This shows that many workers are gradually leaving the job market and part of the working population are becoming non-workers, he said. These may include people who have given up looking for jobs, new graduates who choose to seek higher education because they cannot find jobs and women who become full-time housewives because of scarce job opportunities.
Kenneth Lin (林向愷), an economics professor at National Taiwan University, said that as labor supply continues to exceed demand, it can be expected that working conditions would deteriorate.
Employers still receive applications even if they have dramatically lowered salaries and compensation packages, since many jobseekers have lowered their standards because jobs are at an all-time low.
Democratic Progressive Party legislators said last week that the jobless numbers were being manipulated by the government, which counts people who work at least one hour a week as employed.
Such workers do not earn enough money to support themselves and their families, Lin said.
“More people are willing to take jobs that they would not have considered before,” he said, because they can no longer expect the conditions and opportunities that were available before the economic downturn.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday appealed to the authorities to release former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) from pretrial detention amid conflicting reports about his health. The TPP at a news conference on Thursday said that Ko should be released to a hospital for treatment, adding that he has blood in his urine and had spells of pain and nausea followed by vomiting over the past three months. Hsieh Yen-yau (謝炎堯), a retired professor of internal medicine and Ko’s former teacher, said that Ko’s symptoms aligned with gallstones, kidney inflammation and potentially dangerous heart conditions. Ko, charged with