■EMPLOYMENT
Job openings set to soar
The nation’s manpower demand is expected to increase by about 48,000 from the end of October until the end of next month, a survey published yesterday by the Council of Labor Affairs showed. The results of the fourth manpower survey of the year, conducted from Oct. 16 until Nov. 5 and with 3,025 valid samples, said that 21.3 percent of the companies that responded would hire more people next month, representing an increase of about 65,200 workers. About 8 percent of the companies surveyed plan to cut jobs, representing a reduction of about 17,300 workers. That would result in a net increase of 47,900 workers. It would be the highest net increase for a single season since the survey was launched in the third quarter of 2007, council officials said. Around 65 percent of the companies said they would keep their manpower unchanged next month.
■HEALTH
Most herbal cures imported
A big chunk of the nation’s imports of herbal and traditional medicines last year came from China, the non-profit Development Center for Biotechnology reported. Quoting a Chinese government customs report, the center said Taiwan imported traditional herbal medicine worth US$29.66 million from China last year, making Taiwan China’s fifth-largest market for this type of export. Local customs statistics show traditional medicine imports from China amounted to between 60 percent and 70 percent of total imports of these products. China is the world’s major exporter of raw materials used in herbal medicines, with a huge number of suppliers and processors, the center said. However, the center said the quality of these medicines was unpredictable and hard to control.
■HEALTH
Flu shots for everyone
The government is planning to make Dec. 12 a national day of immunization against A(H1N1) influenza, with the entire population expected to get a shot against the disease starting on that day, Department of Health Minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) said. It is hoped that everyone in the country, regardless of age or immunization priority order, will go to designated hospitals, clinics and injection stops for a vaccination shot from next Saturday, Yaung said. “The greater the number of people who get immunized, the better the efficiency of collective immunization will be,” Yaung said at the Legislative Yuan. As of Monday, about 8.75 percent of the population, or about 2 million people, had been vaccinated based on an order of priority prescribed by the government, statistics from the Central Epidemics Command Center show.
■SPORTS
Kaohsiung to run stadium
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) yesterday welcomed an announcement by Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) that the city government could take over the World Games Main Stadium from the Sports Affairs Council in three years’ time. Chen said she had urged city government officials to establish a cross-departmental task force to discuss the details with the Sports Affairs Council. She said the city government hoped to turn the stadium into an important venue for major events in the south. Chen said the city government was willing to shoulder responsibility for managing the stadium because Kaohsiung residents had developed a special bond with the venue since the World Games were held there in July.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Trips for more than 100,000 international and domestic air travelers could be disrupted as China launches a military exercise around Taiwan today, Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said yesterday. The exercise could affect nearly 900 flights scheduled to enter the Taipei Flight Information Region (FIR) during the exercise window, it added. A notice issued by the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration showed there would be seven temporary zones around the Taiwan Strait which would be used for live-fire exercises, lasting from 8am to 6pm today. All aircraft are prohibited from entering during exercise, it says. Taipei FIR has 14 international air routes and
Snow fell on Yushan (Jade Mountain, 玉山) yesterday morning as a continental cold air mass sent temperatures below freezing on Taiwan’s tallest peak, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Snowflakes were seen on Yushan’s north peak from 6:28am to 6:38am, but they did not fully cover the ground and no accumulation was recorded, the CWA said. As of 7:42am, the lowest temperature recorded across Taiwan was minus-5.5°C at Yushan’s Fengkou observatory and minus-4.7°C at the Yushan observatory, CWA data showed. On Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County, a low of 1.3°C was recorded at 6:39pm, when ice pellets fell at Songsyue Lodge (松雪樓), a
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