Jobless rate falls in December for 6th straight month

Taipei, Jan. 22 (CNA) Taiwan's jobless rate for December moved lower for the sixth consecutive month as business activity continued to improve, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said Saturday.

Data compiled by the DGBAS showed that the unemployment rate fell 0.02 percentage points from a month earlier to 3.64 percent in December, after a 0.17 percentage point decline in November.

However, after seasonal adjustments, the December jobless rate stood at 3.72 percent, up 0.01 percentage points from a month earlier, the data indicated.

In December, the number of those who lost jobs fell 3,000 or 0.66 percent from a month earlier to 433,000, while the number of people employed rose 3,000 or 0.03 percent to 11.48 million with the labor participation rate at 59.16 percent, up 0.05 percentage points month-on-month, the DGBAS said.

In the same month, as the spread of COVID-19 eased, the number of those who lost their jobs due to business downsizing or closures fell 2,000 from a month earlier, the DGBAS said.

In 2021, Taiwan's jobless rate averaged 3.95 percent, up 0.10 percentage points year-on-year as an outbreak of domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases in mid-May affected the local job market with the number of unemployed averaging 471,000 monthly, down 11,000 or 2.39 percent from a year earlier, the DGBAS data showed.

The labor participation rate for 2021 averaged 59.02 percent, down 0.12 percentage points year-on-year, according to the DGBAS.

The number of people employed in the industrial and service sectors rose 0.08 percent and 0.03 percent, respectively, from a month earlier in December, while the number employed in the agricultural sector fell 0.41 percent, the data showed.

In 2021, the service sector accounted for 59.81 percent of those employed in Taiwan, the DGBAS said, adding that over the past decade, the ratio of the number employed in the service sector to total number employed rose 1.21 percentage points, but the ratio of those employed in the industrial and agricultural sectors fell 0.89 percentage points and 0.33 percentage points, respectively.

The unemployment rate among those with a university degree stood at 5.49 percent in 2021, the highest among all education groups, according to DGBAS figures.

The jobless rate for individuals with a senior high school or junior high school education was 3.77 percent and 2.97 percent, respectively, DGBAS figures showed.

By age, the unemployment rate for those aged 20-24 in 2021 was 12.52 percent, the majority of whom were first-time jobseekers, while the jobless rate was 8.73 percent for the 15-19 age group, and 6.59 percent for those aged 25-29, the data indicated.