The average monthly wage in July rose 2.51 percent from a year earlier to NT$45,520 (US$1,424), and increased 0.2 percent from a month earlier, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said yesterday.
Electricity and gas suppliers, publication and video content producers, and financial and insurance companies provided the highest average monthly pay of more than NT$65,000 in July, the agency said.
By contrast, non-school education facilities had the lowest monthly wages of NT$29,600 on average, followed by hair and beauty salons at NT$30,506 and transportation companies at NT$32,235, it said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Including performance-based commission, overtime, bonuses and dividends, the average wage in July edged up 1.66 percent annually to NT$59,221, the agency said.
The figure was 10 percent higher than in June due to dividend distributions, it said.
Electronic component makers offered the highest average total wages of NT$142,886 in July, followed by airlines at NT$88,301, and financial and insurance service providers at NT$87,388, the agency’s data showed.
In the first seven months of the year, average monthly wages increased 2.47 percent year-on-year to NT$45,381, while average total wages rose 1.57 percent to NT$61,600, the agency said.
Adjusted for inflation, average monthly wages in the first seven months grew 0.21 percent annually, but average total wages declined 0.67 percent, the first contraction for the period in seven years, it said.
The agency also released the July employment data for workers in the industrial and service sectors, showing that the number of staff increased by 25,000, or 0.31 percent, to 8.19 million from a month earlier, as restaurants, hotels and retailers hired more people to meet business growth.
The figure was 0.12 percent, or 9,000 people, higher than a year earlier, it said.
However, companies in the manufacturing sector hired 48,000 people, or 1.67 percent less than a year earlier, the worst drop in 14 years, as exporters continued to take a hit from the global economic slowdown, the agency said
That ran counter to historic trends for the month of July when firms across sectors increased hiring to support business improvement, Census Department Deputy Director Chen Hui-hsin (陳惠欣) said.
“A continued decline in exports is to blame for the poor showing in the manufacturing sector,” Chen said, adding that Taiwanese manufacturers used to add 3,000 to 16,000 workers to their payrolls in July compared with the previous month, but the workforce shrank by 1,000 this year.
That meant local manufacturers are mired in a downcycle based on the lagging economic data, she said.
In the first seven months, the number of workers in the industrial and service sectors increased by 15,000 to 8.17 million from a year earlier, with accommodation and restaurant operators hiring 11,000 more people and entertainment and leisure businesses adding 7,000, the agency said.
Manufacturing jobs were down by 17,000 from a year earlier, it added.
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