A massive earthquake that struck in Hualien in early April affected the county’s tourism industry, pushing the number of workers on formal unpaid leave higher in the first half of the month, the Ministry of Labor said yesterday.
The temblor on April 3, which measured 7.2 on the Richter scale, killed 18 people and injured more than 1,100, prompting the transportation and logistics, hospitality, and entertainment and leisure industries in the county to place more than 150 people on furlough, Labor Conditions and Employment Equality specialist Li Yi-husan (李怡萱) said.
As of Saturday, the number of furloughed workers in the local hotel, and food and beverage industry rose to 248 from 135 at the end of last month, while the figure for the transportation and logistics industry rose to 32 from zero, ministry data showed.
Photo: Wang Chin-yi, Taipei Times
The service support industry, which includes travel agencies, had placed 41 workers on furlough as of Saturday, up from 37 as of May 31, the data showed.
The ministry has provided assistance to affected workers in Hualien’s tourism industry in the form of subsidies allocated to employers to allow furloughed employees to receive training and keep their employment contracts intact, Li said.
In addition, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications has deployed a subsidy program to encourage people to visit Hualien to alleviate the effect of the earthquake on the tourism industry, Li added.
As of Saturday, the number of furloughed workers was 5,338, up 153 from 5,185 as of May 31, while the number of employers with unpaid leave programs fell to 262 from 263 over the 15-day period, the data showed.
The number of furloughed workers in the export-oriented manufacturing sector fell to 4,550 from 4,624 at the end of last month, but still accounted for more than 85 percent of the national total, including 2,704 registered in the information and electronics industry, the data showed.
A precision machinery maker and a construction material firm in the local manufacturing sector each put more than 100 workers on furlough, as orders received by the two companies had become unstable, Li said.
On the other hand, a maker of bicycle components stopped its unpaid leave program, putting about 120 people back on production lines as orders increased, Li said.
Most firms with furlough programs are small, or those that employ fewer than 50 people, the ministry said, adding that unpaid leave programs typically last for less than three months, with employees taking five to eight days of unpaid leave per month.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
RSS