The unemployment rate last month edged down 0.01 percentage points from the previous month to 3.33 percent, the lowest recorded for the month of December in 23 years, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said yesterday.
The figure was also 0.19 percentage points lower than a year earlier, as fewer people lost jobs due to business downsizing or closures, the agency said in a report.
After seasonal adjustments, the unemployment rate rose 0.03 percentage points to 3.40 percent from the previous month, the report showed.
Photo: CNA
For the whole of last year, the unemployment rate was 3.48 percent, down 0.19 percentage points from a year earlier and also the lowest in 23 years, the agency said.
Historically, the jobless rate tends to fall before the Lunar New Year holiday as more people find work due to the holiday-effect, the agency said.
However, it warrants further observation if a wave of job changes would emerge after the holiday, it added.
The latest data showed that the number of unemployed people last month fell by 1,000 sequentially to 399,000 and by 19,000 from a year earlier, as people who lost their jobs due to business downsizing and closures fell by 6,000, while people quitting their jobs due to dissatisfaction rose by 3,000, the report said.
The number of people employed increased by 6,000 from the previous month to 11.58 million last month, with those in the domestic services and industrial sectors rising by 6,000 and 1,000 respectively, while the agricultural sector cut 1,000 jobs, it said.
The average unemployment period last month rose slightly to 20.5 weeks, as it took first-time jobseekers 22.3 weeks to find work, while others spent 19.9 weeks to land one, the report said.
The number of people who were unemployed for more than a year was unchanged from the previous month at 45,000, but dropped by 17,000 from a year earlier, it said.
Overall, the labor market stabilized, with the number of employed people standing at 11.53 million last year, an increase of 110,000 from 2022, as a post-COVID-19 recovery drove up demand for workers in the services sector, while the number of unemployed people decreased by 19,000 to 415,000 amid a gradual pickup in the manufacturing sector, the report said.
The unemployment rate for people aged 15 to 39 all declined: 15 to 19 years old — down to 8.39 percent last year from 8.72 percent the previous year; 20 to 24 years old — down to 11.76 percent from 12.36 percent; 25 to 29 years old — down to 5.99 percent from 6.13 percent; 30 to 34 years old — down to 3.68 percent from 3.7; and 35 to 39 years old — down to 2.66 percent from 2.86 percent.
Last year, university graduates had the highest unemployment rate at 4.8 percent, followed by high-school graduates at 3.2 percent and graduate degree holders at 2.74 percent, the report showed.
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