Taipei, Oct. 23, 2012 (CENS)--Taiwan's unemployment rate dropped by 0.08 of a percentage point to 4.32% in September, reported the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics (DGBAS) yesterday (Oct. 22). A DGBAS official noted that the drop of September's unemployment rate from the August level is a normal situation but the scale of the decline is smaller than the previous two years, underscoring the conservative employment policy of enterprises.
The DGBAS pointed out that in September there were 138,000 people losing their jobs due to business closures or shrinkage, 1,000 more than the amount in August. The September's unemployment rate doesn't include the reported plan of massive layoff by some enterprises, including ProMos Technologies, Nan Ya Technology, both DRAM makers, and Huga Optotech, an LED maker, which overshadows the unemployment rate in October.
Unemployment rate usually peaks in August, due to the entry of large numbers of new graduates into the job market. However, over the past 10 years, unemployment rate failed to drop in September twice, during the years of the busting of the Internet bubble and the rampage of the global financial tsunami, leading to concern over the repetition of the scenario, due to the effect of the Euro-debt crisis.
Despite slight decline of unemployment rate in September, the rate is adjusted to 4.3%, up 0.01 of a percentage point year-on-year and sequentially, after taking seasonal factors into account.
Moreover, Chen Min, a DGBAS official, noted that after seasonal adjustment, the unemployment rate has climbed over 4.2% since May, up from April's 4.19%, and has been rising over the past three months, underscoring the grim situation of the job market amid the sluggish economy.
There is a silver lining in the grim outlook, though, as the economy has shown signs of improvement, including turnaround of exports and export orders and possibility for the business signal to leave the blue-light area in September.
Taiwan's unemployment rate in September was higher than neighboring Asian nations, including Hong Kong at 3.3%, South Korea at 3.1%, Singapore at 2%, and Japan at 4.2%.
(by Philip Liu)
