The nation’s jobless rate last month grew 0.03 percentage points to 3.56 percent due to employee resignations, adding to unemployment caused by business downsizing and closures, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
Despite the increase, last month’s data represented the lowest March jobless rate in 23 years and is expected to drop further this month, DGBAS Census Department Deputy Director Chen Hui-hsin (陳惠欣) said.
“The noticeable advance in the number of people who are jobless because of resignations shows that many of them need more time to land satisfactory positions,” Chen said.
Photo courtesy of the Workforce Development Agency
Although the increase is at odds with historical data, the job market is stable, she added.
The observation is supported by seasonal adjustments in the jobless rates, showing that it rose a fractional 0.01 percentage points to 3.59 percent, also the lowest in 23 years, Chen said.
The total jobless population stood at 424,000, rising 0.94 percent, or by about 4,000 people, from February, the DGBAS said.
Although resignations lifted the rate, the number of people who lost work to business downsizing and closures subsided, it added.
Job losses linked to the COVID-19 pandemic have reduced by 24,000 since July last year, Chen said.
However, the number of people who work fewer than 35 hours per week rose by 10,000 to 195,000, she added.
An ongoing global economic slowdown has prompted local manufacturers to cut capacity and headcounts to cope with poor end-market demand for Taiwanese goods, mainly electronics used in consumer devices.
The unemployment period averaged 22.6 weeks, shorter by 0.5 weeks from a month earlier, but stretched to 25.1 weeks for first-time jobseekers, the DGBAS said.
By educational breakdown, people with university degrees had the highest unemployment rate at 4.97 percent, followed by those with high-school diplomas at 3.26 percent and people with graduate degrees at 2.8 percent, it said.
The unemployment rate for people with junior college diplomas stood at 2.61 percent and 2.43 percent for people with only junior-high school education, it said.
By demographics, people aged 20 to 24 had the highest unemployment rate at 11.8 percent, followed by the 15 to 19 age group at 8.14 percent, the 25 to 29 age group at 6.24 percent and the 30 to 34 age bracket at 3.74 percent, it said.
People aged 45 to 64 had the lowest jobless rate of 2.23 percent, it said.
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