The number of workers on formal unpaid leave programs fell in the past week as a tire maker ended its program, but more than 10,000 people were still on the list, the Ministry of Labor (MOL) said yesterday.
Data released by the ministry showed the number of workers on furlough fell to 10,330 as of July 31, down 245 from the previous tally as of July 23.
Despite the fall in furloughed workers, the number of employers that filed unpaid leave programs with the ministry rose to 654, up 29 from a week earlier.
Photo: CNA
Department of Labor Standards and Equal Employment Director Huang Wei-chen (黃維琛) said the big change over the past week was a major tire company ending its furlough plan by having 600 workers return to its production lines full-time.
Huang said the tire plant, which had an unpaid leave program in place for more than a month, saw orders stabilize and decided to end the plan at the end of last month.
Still, the manufacturing sector generally continued to feel the impact from weakening global demand, the ministry said.
Huang said two machine tool makers reported placing about 100 and 80 workers on furlough at the end of last month because of a fall in export orders.
As of July 31, the number of furloughed workers in the manufacturing sector fell 291 during the week to 8,130, but that still accounted for almost 80 percent of the total workers on formal furlough programs in Taiwan, Huang said.
More than 5,000 of them were in the metal and electric machine industries, he said.
With domestic demand strong in the post-COVID-19 era, the service sector stayed relatively stable in terms of furloughed workers, ministry data showed.
There were 978 workers on unpaid leave in the retail and wholesale sectors, up from 967 a week earlier, and 577 workers on unpaid leave in the support service industry, compromised mostly of travel agencies, up from 566 a week earlier, the data showed.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
SECURITY CONCERNS: The proposed ban on Chinese autonomous vehicle software and hardware would go into effect with the 2027 and 2030 model years respectively The US Department of Commerce today is expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on US roads due to national security concerns, two sources said. US President Joe Biden’s administration has raised concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on US drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the Internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the