The job market last month showed mild improvement by measure of the unemployment rate, but an ongoing economic slowdown weighed on the manufacturing industry’s hiring activity, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The unemployment rate shed 0.06 percentage points to 3.56 percent, the lowest in 23 years for the same period, after fewer people lost their jobs to business downsizing or closures, the statistics agency said.
This month’s results were relatively flat, as the job market has emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic, DGBAS Census Department Deputy Director Chen Hui-hsin (陳惠欣) said.
Photo: CNA
However, the unemployment rate could increase from next month, as graduating students would boost the number of first-time jobseekers, Chen said.
The number of unemployed people decreased 1.64 percent, or by 7,000, to 417,000, from a month earlier, the agency said.
The figures came after people who lost jobs to business downsizing and closures decreased by 4,000, and the number of first-time jobseekers fell by 2,000, it said.
By contrast, the number of people who work fewer than 35 hours per week due to economic reasons increased by 5,000 to 200,000, it said.
An increase of 5,000 is within a reasonable range and is not alarming, Chen said.
The unemployment period averaged 21.1 weeks, a decline of 1.5 weeks from a month earlier, and decreased of 0.7 weeks to 24.4 weeks among first-time jobseekers, the agency said.
People with university degrees had the highest unemployment rate at 4.84 percent, followed by those with high-school diplomas at 3.23 percent and people with graduate degrees at 2.82 percent, it said.
The unemployment rate for people with junior-college diplomas was 2.55 percent, and 2.42 percent for those with junior-high school education or below, it said.
People aged 20 to 24 had the highest unemployment rate of 11.75 percent, followed by the 15 to 19 age group at 8.26 percent, the 25 to 29 age bracket at 6.07 percent and the 30 to 34 age group at 3.72 percent, it said.
People aged 45 to 64 had the lowest unemployment rate of 2.18 percent, as protracted labor shortages led businesses to hire more older people, it said.
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