Taiwan jobless rate drops slightly
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan’s jobless rate dropped to 6.04 percent in September, 0.09 percentage points down from a record high recorded in the previous month, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said yesterday. However, the seasonally adjusted rate hit a record high of 6.09 percent, up from the 6.07 percent recorded in August, the agency said.
In September, the number of unemployed people totaled 661,000, down 11,000 from the previous month, when a record 6.13 percent was recorded, due mainly to new graduates flooding the job market.
According to the results of a survey released Thursday, some 48 percent of the people who lost their jobs over the past year did so involuntarily, and the unemployed were jobless for six months on average.
The results of the survey conducted Oct. 8-21 by the online human resources company 1111 Job Bank show that 21.34 percent of the unemployed were jobless for more than a year, 12.23 percent were jobless for two or three months, and 11.03 percent took one month to find a new job.
An executive in charge of public relations at 1111 Job Bank attributed the high ratio of long-term job seekers to their lack of ability, their slim competitive edge and their unrealistic expectations of their prospects.
The number of job applications sent out by each unemployed person averaged 81, for a total of just six interviews, according to the survey results.
Since July, the number of jobs has been increasing month by month , but with the influx of large numbers of new graduates into the job market, the unemployment situation has not improved much, according to the executive.
A total of 1,431 valid samples were collected for the survey, which had a margin of error of 2.24 percent and a confidence level of 95 percent.