■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.
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
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