Jobless rate falls in September

Taipei, Oct. 22 (CNA) Taiwan's jobless rate for September fell from a month earlier as the effects of an increase in first-time jobseekers during the graduation season receded, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said Tuesday.

Data compiled by the DGBAS showed the September jobless rate fell 0.09 percentage points from a month earlier to 3.80 percent. However, after seasonal adjustments, the rate rose 0.01 percentage points from August to 3.74 percent.

Pan Ning-hsin (潘寧馨), deputy director of the DGBAS census department, told reporters that during the June-August period, the local jobless rate was boosted by an influx of new graduates from high schools, colleges and universities, but September was when those affects in the local job market faded and returned to a more normal pattern.

In September, the number of unemployed fell 11,000 or 2.40 percent to 455,000, while the number of those in work fell 19,000 or 0.16 percent to 11.51 million, Pan said.

According to the data, the labor participation rate for September stood at 59.22 percent, down 0.16 percentage points from a month earlier.

While the global economic slowdown has impacted local economic fundamentals, based on the seasonal adjusted figure for September, the local job market remains resilient, Pan said.

From the beginning of this year, the local jobless rate has ranged from 3.71 to 3.75 percent, indicating the local job market is stable without any major fluctuations, he said.

In September, the number of first time jobseekers fell 5,000 from a month earlier as many new graduates landed jobs after searching over the past few months, while the number of those who lost jobs due to termination of temporary and seasonal employment contracts also fell 5,000 from a month earlier, the DGBAS said.

The jobless rate for people with a university degree was 5.57 percent in September, the highest among all education groups. It was 3.47 percent for people with a high school diploma and 3.02 percent for those with a graduate school degree, DGBAS figures showed.

The unemployment rate for different age groups was 10.47 percent among people aged 15-19 and 12.86 percent among those aged 20-24 due to the higher number of first-time job seekers in those age groups, the data indicated.

Meanwhile, the jobless rate for the 25-29 group was 6.87 percent in September, the DGBAS said.

In the first nine months of this year, the local jobless rate stood at 3.73 percent, up 0.02 percentage points from a year earlier, according to the DGBAS.

The average labor participation rate in the nine months was 59.15 percent, up 0.19 percentage points from a year earlier, while the number of people employed on average rose by 70,000, or 0.62 percent, from a year earlier to 11.49 million, the DGBAS said.