Unemployment steady, low and seasonal

WELL TRIMMED: Unemployment and underemployment are about where the government expected them to be, DGBAS said, with graduations driving the curve right now

• By Crystal Hsu / Staff reporter

• • Add TT as Preferred Source

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Taiwan’s unemployment rate rose for a third straight month last month as graduates entered the job market, but the increase was largely seasonal, with the jobless rate for the month remaining the lowest in more than two decades, government data showed.

The unemployment rate climbed to 3.41 percent from 3.39 percent in July, the lowest August reading since 2001, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the rate edged down to 3.32 percent from 3.33 percent, indicating that underlying labor-market conditions remained firm, the DGBAS said.

People visit a store on Chifeng Street in Taipei’s Datong District on Aug. 25.

Photo: CNA

“The rise in unemployment is seasonal, as the labor-force participation rate is growing and the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate is declining,” DGBAS Census Department Deputy Director Tan Wen-ling (譚文玲) said at a news conference.

The number of unemployed people rose by 2,000 to 411,000, as the number of first-time job seekers increased by 3,000 during the month, Tan said.

With more people entering the workforce, Taiwan’s labor participation rate rose to 59.69 percent, the highest for August since 1995, driven by increased participation among women and middle-aged or older workers, she said.

The rise in participation is significant for an economy facing a shrinking workforce as low birthrates and rapid population aging put pressure on labor supply, she said.

The government has sought to encourage women and older people to remain in or return to the workforce to help ease labor shortages, and “the increase indicates that government efforts are bearing fruit,” Tan said.

Young workers continued to face the highest unemployment, as the jobless rate among people aged 15 to 24 was 11.74 percent, reflecting the large number of young people entering the workforce after graduation. The rate was 5.88 percent for those aged 25 to 29 and 3.35 percent for people aged 30 to 34, the DGBAS data showed.

By educational attainment, people with university degrees had the highest unemployment rate at 4.56 percent, followed by those with graduate degrees at 3.16 percent and those with senior high school or vocational high school education at 3.13 percent, the data showed.

Broader measures of labor market slack remained stable, as the number of people working fewer hours than they wanted fell to 119,000, suggesting there was little change in underemployment, the DGBAS said.

Taiwan’s headline unemployment rate remained above those of neighboring Japan and South Korea, where the rates were 2.4 percent and 2.7 percent respectively.

Tan said the gap partly reflects differences in employment structures, adding that non-regular workers accounted for about 36.5 percent of employees in Japan and 38.2 percent in South Korea, compared with only 7.6 percent in Taiwan.

The increase in unemployment rate last month is unlikely to signal a deterioration in the labor market, as unemployment typically falls in September when new graduates find jobs and summer workers return to school, Tan said.