Regular pay in January averaged NT$44,369 (US$1,562.12), up 0.89 percent from a month earlier and 2.91 percent year-on-year, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said on Thursday.
The monthly growth was the highest since July last year, but the real annual increase was only 0.06 percent after deducting a 2.84 percent rise in the consumer price index, Department of Census Deputy Director Chen Hui-hsin (陳惠欣) said.
The largest hike was in the securities and financial sector, with the average regular salary increasing 4.78 percent, while the air cargo transport industry (up 3.39 percent) was second and the marine transport sector (up 3.12 percent) was third, DGBAS data showed.
Photo: CNA
Average irregular earnings in January were NT$64,527, which combined with regular pay totaled NT$108,896.
The average income increased 51.26 percent from a year earlier.
Chen ascribed the increase to the timing of annual and performance bonuses, which are usually paid in late January or early February, depending on the date of the Lunar New Year.
Lunar New Year day was on Feb. 1 this year and on Feb. 12 last year.
Irregular earnings in January varied from industry to industry, Chen said.
The financial sector had the highest level of irregular earnings, with an average of NT$213,000 for the month, with the telecommunications sector (NT$177,000) second, the air cargo transport sector (NT$169,000) third and the marine transport sector (NT$165,000) fourth, she said.
As of the end of January, 8.17 million people were employed in the industrial and services sectors, a decrease of 3,000 from a month earlier, but an increase of 3,000 from a year earlier, DGBAS data showed.
South Korea’s equity benchmark yesterday crossed a new milestone just a month after surpassing the once-unthinkable 5,000 mark as surging global memory demand powers the country’s biggest chipmakers. The KOSPI advanced as much as 2.6 percent to a record 6,123, with Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc each gaining more than 2 percent. With the benchmark now up 45 percent this year, South Korea’s stock market capitalization has also moved past France’s, following last month’s overtaking of Germany’s. Long overlooked by foreign funds, despite being undervalued, South Korean stocks have now emerged as clear winners in the global market. The so-called “artificial intelligence
‘SEISMIC SHIFT’: The researcher forecast there would be about 1.1 billion mobile shipments this year, down from 1.26 billion the prior year and erasing years of gains The global smartphone market is expected to contract 12.9 percent this year due to the unprecedented memorychip shortage, marking “a crisis like no other,” researcher International Data Corp (IDC) said. The new forecast, a dramatic revision down from earlier estimates, gives the latest accounting of the ongoing memory crunch that is affecting every corner of the electronics industry. The demand for advanced memory to power artificial intelligence (AI) tasks has drained global supply until well into next year and jeopardizes the business model of many smartphone makers. IDC forecast about 1.1 billion mobile shipments this year, down from 1.26 billion the prior
People stand in a Pokemon store in Tokyo on Thursday. One of the world highest-grossing franchises is celebrated its 30th anniversary yesterday.
Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek’s (深度求索) latest AI model, set to be released as soon as next week, was trained on Nvidia Corp’s most advanced AI chip, the Blackwell, a senior official of US President Donald Trump’s administration said on Monday, in what could represent a violation of US export controls. The US believes DeepSeek will remove the technical indicators that might reveal its use of American AI chips, the official said, adding that the Blackwells are likely clustered at its data center in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China. The person declined to say how the US government received
RSS