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Taiwan - Unemployment falls to seven year low

22 December 2014

Taiwan's unemployment fell slightly to 3.89% in November, the lowest monthly rate in 7 years; the island's statistics authority said today.

 The figure represents a monthly fall of 0.06 percentage points as the labour participation rate recorded an increase of 0.02 points or 17,000 people, to 58.66%, the figures showed.

In November, the jobless population decreased by 6,000 from the previous month to 451,000.

For the first 11 months of this year, the unemployment rate averaged 3.97%, the lowest for the same period in 7 years.

These figures seem to confirm 104 Job Banks forecast and ManpowerGroup’s employment study that states it expects that Taiwan’s Employment Outlook to maintain upward momentum and rise to 43% in 1Q 2015 in light of the positive global economic forecast.

The figure, the strongest forecast since the survey’s launch in 2005, is up five percentage points from a year ago. It marks the second best result both in terms of the world and the Asia-Pacific region, according to Allen Ng, the permanent operations manager of ManpowerGroup Taiwan.

Of the 1,118 local businesses interviewed, 40% intended to boost hiring, while 53% foresaw no change and 3% planned to decrease their staff size.

The report also indicated that Taiwan’s finance, insurance and real estate sectors showed the most optimistic hiring intention at 50%, followed by services at 47% and manufacturing at 39%.

Compared with 4Q this year, the most notable improvement of six percentage points were reported in both the services and the transportation and utility sectors while prospects weakened by five percentage points in mining and construction.

Ng said employers in the finance sector have become emboldened to elevate staff levels since 4Q 2013, when the Republic of China government helped spur the sector’s development in mainland China and other Asia markets by relaxing relevant rules and regulations.

The executive also said job seekers in the services sector will benefit from the swelling number of tourists and newly opened hotels. Moreover, the demand partially stems from a talent shortage owing to competitors in mainland China recruiting many mid- to high-level managers from Taiwan, he added.

Taiwan was partially the focus of our recent briefing Asia in 2015.